


Hungry Dreams

by Orthodoxia



Category: Forgotten Realms, Neverwinter Nights
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-02-23 10:59:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 77,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13188663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orthodoxia/pseuds/Orthodoxia
Summary: Healing can happen even if the supposed healer isn't interested in the job, but Gann's nightly visits to Spirit-eater's dreams seem to be having a therapeutic effect despite his original intent. Old work - 2008-09.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a really, really, REALLY old work - 2008-09. One of my first in fact. And the only one I was ever fully motivated to complete. I enjoyed working on it like nothing else that came afterwards. Maybe because it felt like writing was easier back then, more fun...
> 
> And since it's been hanging on FF.net for so long, I've decided to share it here as well. And, not counting some minor grammatical corrections, becasue my mastery over the English language has changed, it's not rewritten, or changed or anything becasue despite years and stories I've written later, I still quite like it the way it is - warts and all.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it as well.

Drums.

It had to be.

Without any questions or the slightest doubt.

The sound of rhythmic beats couldn't be mistaken for anything else.

And, aside from the two times he had wandered the dreams with her where they'd located and successfully recovered pieces of the mask they had no idea what to use for, every other attempt he had made to enter this uncharted territory was met with drums.

And the Faceless Man, screeching and charging in his direction.

On one such occasion, Ele'ena had the audacity to say that all men have the most inappropriate sense of timing to date. Gannayev-of-Dreams was never really sure if she meant the _Hunger_ she struggled to keep in check or, spirits forbid, _him_.

And so this time there were drums in the air. Again.

Which meant, if his sharp intuition wasn't deceiving him, that he was about to be charged and screamed at. Yet again.

Why he even bothered entering her dreams he didn't know. Except that she was so full of contradictions that he just couldn't help his playful curiosity. Yes, when something piqued his interest he was so easy to dazzle. He didn't like to think of himself as cheap, but yes, yes he was.

The screeching and screaming hisses increased, and soon, from the dark mists a shape of tall pale humanoid emerged shrieking with hunger. Gann ran his fingers through his long hair with a sigh. Might as well get on and get it over with it.

He watched as the pale shape of the Faceless Man fell, face forward, with a lanky blue elf hanging on to its knees. The moment the creature touched the mass that made this dream and her mind, it started to sink in.

Gann knew what it was. He had had the 'pleasure' of seeing it happen on his previous visits, all of them in fact.

Suppression.

Her mind, her will, were keeping the _Hunger_ at bay, by tying it down. Sometimes on the floor, sometimes in the walls – once even hanging from the ceiling. And the owner of this powerful will – and one would never think her so until one saw her in action – greeted him in her usual way.

"You again?! Can't you go bother someone else for a change?!" The elven girl hissed from where she was struggling with her screaming curse, forcing the shapeless floor of her mind to swallow it. Her hands were, after all, full. She couldn't bother to have tact and Gann understood that. He still wished she was more receptive to his presence though.

He clasped his hands and stepped around the gurgling floor and behind her.

"Am I not allowed to come freely from time to time and see if all is well with our most beloved leader?"

Ele'ena, her arms up to the elbows in thick mass and with the struggling creature beneath her, blinked at his choice of words.

Come freely? Waltz into her mind? Take a relaxing stroll in the most private reaches of her dreams?

Well, not so private ever since the Faceless Man moved in, but…

Making sure that the mind-prison would hold she stood up and threw him a dirty look. Privacy was obviously an unknown word in this hagspawn's vocabulary.

Now, Ele'ena was, for the most part, only aggressive and violently disposed inside her mind. And since they were effectively there already she had the burning desire to beat the word 'privacy' directly into his head.

"I take it the others don't really have the means to stop you from wandering wherever you please?" He shrugged with a most charming smile.

That meant no.

"Listen here dreamwalker," Ele'ena said, placing a foot on a now completely engulfed creature-curse – a threatening pose indeed, for it raised the question that if she had just subdued an ancient hunger would she be able to throw him out as well? Gann liked to doubt these things.

"I," she emphasized pointing a thumb at her chest, and he had the sudden suspicion a rant was coming his way, "so happen to have an ancient curse placed upon me – the type the world usually doesn't know how to deal with until one day some poor, unfortunate soul stumbles across a solution – a curse which I have to, and pardon my choice of words here, _battle_ every single minute of every single hour and so on, and so forth. And on top of that, I don't need your praised self-absorbed high-and-mighty handsome face every single night-"

"Handsome?" He had to ask; his ears might be deceiving him.

"-popping out of nowhere, hanging behind my back while I deal with a stressful, and did I mention, potentially lethal situation! So you can pack up all your charming little phrases and use the mist door labelled 'THIS WAY OUT' and stay out!"

"Charming?" My, did she really think that? Well how was he to know? She never said a word when awake.

Even in the dream world Ele'ena had managed to retain her marvellous ability of going from blue to red while skipping purple in the process.

"All your choice of words when describing yourself and coming from me, they were not meant as a compliment," she snapped quickly in pure self-defence. "And now you will remove yourself and stop treating my dreams like your personal playground, hagspawn," she yet again pointed a warning finger in his direction.

"Or what?" Gannayev-of-Dreams, a most experienced dreamwalker who deemed himself impossible to be 'violently kicked-out' unless he allowed it, raised an eyebrow.

Ele'ena once again went red, though it might have been due to the anger this time around, and narrowed her eyes at him. Cocky blue bastard. And they called _her_ unbearable to deal with. Very well then. He would learn the hard way why she was denounced by various factions of Neverwinter.

With a grin that perhaps only Neeshka could imitate without splitting her face, Ele'ena cocked her head at the place where the _Hunger_ was temporarily buried.

"Neither he nor I have eaten in a while, you know," she sing-songed innocently. Gann scoffed.

"Such threats are unbecoming of you. You wouldn't actually-"

Tendrils of the mind-prison started retreating and the Hunger reared its masked head. The curse squealed – _squealed_ – with glee. Gann's face fell.

"You would."

A few more tendrils, small ones, moved out of the way and the Faceless Man could now freely move one of his arms. One wielding a very big scythe. Gann didn't fail to notice that the creature was likely hungry after all the shoving around Ele'ena had put it through.

Now was the time for retreat. A retreat that did not look like one. And luck being on his side, he had a very good excuse.

"And the dawn is approaching. My dear friend, you should quickly wrap him up again before we are on the road. You know how uncomfortable Old Father Bear feels when you lash around with your hunger like a mare in heat."

The Faceless Man nearly broke out completely.

"I'll see you in the waking world then," he waved and with a smile disappeared into the surrounding mists.

"And stay out!" Her voice, cascading through dreams, followed him out.

She glared stubbornly at the retreating dreamwalker. When he was out of sight – and out of mind – she slumped down on to her knees. The mind-prison was reinforced once again. She wished it were half as easy to restrain the _Hunger_ as she made it look in front of Gann. Then the fear of being utterly consumed wouldn't linger and press her as much as it did.

Angry grumbling reached her pointed ears and she glared at her co-habitant.

"No, you don't get to eat him," Ele'ena said from her position on the shapeless floor next to the _Hunger_ trapped within the tendrils of her mind. Gods knew how long it would hold this time. If she could only contain it permanently she wouldn't feel as hopeless and useless as she did now.

The creature hissed and whizzed and made a sound that would make ears bleed had she actually been hearing it with her ears rather than feeling it all in her head. Which made it all the more worse, actually.

Of course, comparing it to its usual sounds it just might have been a pitiful let-me-out-I'll-be-good mewl. There was no way of telling for sure.

Ele'ena dropped her face in her hands. They better run into some spirits, undead, elementals or just…anything edible or things within her head would get real ugly real fast.

Gods above and below, what wouldn't she give for a honey-cake right now.

* - * - *

Sleeping outside where the spirits reside was something the dreamwalker was very much used to and even rejoiced from. Except that, for obvious reasons, the spirits avoided their little group like the plague.

He sat up and stretched; A life spent in the wild or not, Gann had yet to work out how exactly animals managed to wake up without a single knot in their muscles. Still, a sore back didn't stop him from grinning with a great deal of smugness.

No, his leader never failed to amuse him on his nightly expeditions.

"I see someone has woken up in a better mood than most," Safiya greeted him, a small fire burning behind her with a meagre breakfast on it. In cold climes such as these something warm in the belly was always welcome, though trusting the cooking skills of a Red Wizard, no matter how amicable, might make someone stick to anything cold or dry, or leave the party completely.

Off to the side Kaelyn was quietly finishing the repacking of her bag, while Okku seemed to be enjoying – not that he could feel a thing – some rays of sun on the frozen ground. Even Khaji wasn't to be heard. A lively morning it was.

And not too far away the ashen colored elf stood looking away from the camp and its occupants.

There was nothing surprising about that. Since the day she was cursed Aneele neither slept nor ate – unless it was either souls or spirits or elementals – and took permanent guard duty. It worried Safiya to no end – and probably made her slightly curious too – but Gann took it all in stride.

Aneele was a spirit-eater. The curse was bound to be more than just skin-deep.

Breakfast was quick. They were not about to let their leader wait longer than necessary. She might show some impatience. He cracked a grin at that thought - Or not. For all the weeks of travelling he had never noticed her to show any kind of emotion outside her inner world.

So he had to say that he was surprised, very, very surprised when she addressed him. Voluntarily. Outside of a dream. And not kicking and screaming at him.

"Gann."

The voice, gruff and unrefined, made him stop in his tracks. This voice he did not hear often, and, he mused solemnly, it was so much different from the other one. Less pleasant too.

But my, was she actually speaking to him? Stranger and curious this morning was becoming.

She looked at him in her own peculiar way, one good eye appearing rather unfocused as she seemed to look through him. Or into him. She had that ability – gift of the spirit-eater he presumed – to look within someone, see all there is to see about that person, and then decide whether they would be tasty enough to bother.

"I…" her voice, used so rarely now that he could count the occasions on the fingers of one hand, cracked, "already have…one glutton to battle with. I don't need…another."

"But I'm not laying a siege on you, dear friend. You need not defend yourself from me." He assumed the most charming smile, harmless tone of voice and was shrouded in innocence. Aneele didn't even blink.

"It's the truth. I have helped you twice already in your dreams and on many occasions in the waking world." Some would believe him. Smart ones wouldn't. But then again in the waking world, she didn't really give a damn.

Her gaze, sharper now, lingered on his face – his _face_ – and not behind his eyes.

Or so he assumed.

Damn her two-faced personality.

Aneele turned around, her one eye set on the road ahead of them. She didn't speak, did not comment on his heartening speech and for all the hagspawn knew it could either be a good sign or bad things creeping on the horizon.


	2. Chapter 2

The road from Immril Vale to Ashenwood was long and largely uneventful, and that was probably due to the fact that spirits and elementals of the area were staying clear of a certain someone in their group.

"You are strangely quiet today Gannayev."

"Mmm," he looked up at the angel warrior who was walking next to him. "Oh my mind wanders. Traveling with our dear leader has that kind of effect. But what of you? You are not speaking with her this fine morning?"

"The wizardess, Safiya, is with her now," and they both looked behind and over their shoulders. Safiya and Aneele were walking side by side, the wizardess holding up a book, explaining things and avoiding bumps and stones in the road skillfully. A remnant from her academy days as a professor perhaps. Aneele was as attentive as someone in her condition could be. Her eye went from Safiya to the book in her hands and back. She did appear to be listening carefully.

"She is doing much better," Kaelyn said softly. Gann looked surprised.

"She does? By what standards?"

"When I met her in Shadow Mulsantir she was barely more than a construct - dead on the inside and dying on the outside," Dove spoke remembering the meeting with the pale, thin girl wielding a scythe. Yes, a true undead in all but a beating heart.

Gann reflected on her silent behavior, her empty stares and mechanized precision with which she would cut down her enemies in the weeks that followed his, ah… liberation from prison. Not to mention her complete lack of social conduct. The elf had a tendency to ignore everyone around her. Safiya theorized that it might have something to do with her preoccupation with keeping the curse at bay. Still, it made her a most undesirable talking companion.

"I honestly do not see much change from that."

"You have little sensibilities outside your dreams Gannayev. I can sense such things. She may never return to what she once was but she will be able to live, not just survive."

Gann thought about it. If how she looked in her mind was how she once was like then there certainly wasn't any going back. But that was it, wasn't it? It wasn't about going back, but move forward.

Grinning he honestly looked forward to tonight's dreaming.

A pity for him that Aneele had seen that grin.

* - * - *

"Didn't I tell you that you're not allowed to show your face in here again," were the words that greeted him upon materializing in her dream. She had been waiting for him at the precise spot he appeared and he nearly collided with her.

"You forgot to add handsome again," he evaded.

"You're overpricing it," she huffed, and then, as if she remembered, "And you're not to come here and...- hey!"

With the ease and grace of someone used to frolicking in dreamscape he picked her up by the waist and moved her out of his way. Surprised for a second she shrieked insults a moment later.

"Where is your charming neighbor?" He asked walking deeper into her dreamscape.

"Locked away." She huffed crossing her arms and following him. She wished she had the training necessary to kick him out, or just ward her dreams against him. "For a while anyway."

Even in his infinite lack of sensitivity he understood that she would rather not have this curse at all. But, oh well.

"We are alone tonight, I take it?"

Oh, the insinuation.

"Get. Out. Now."

"A bit repetitive, aren't we?" He tapped her nose.

"I wouldn't be repetitive if you weren't here. And…and who are you to say I'm repetitive in my own head?!"

"Do you honestly prefer his company to mine?" He gestured at the shadows coming from the corners of the dreams.

Silence.

"Definitely."

"You hesitated."

"I contemplated."

"But it took you time to decide."

"Of course. It takes great mental labor to remember anything positive about you."

"Now you're saying things just to hurt me."

"Is that even possible?"

He moved away from her in one smooth motion.

"Cruel Aneele."

The surroundings in which he found himself were calm, green and grassy, bathed in sunlight. An empty village - her village, he presumed - all set up for a fair. Only the colorfully dressed people and the music lacked, but in retrospect, with the Hunger providing plenty of drumbeat she had probably had enough of it by now.

This was a memory from far away recreated to serve as her haven, a safe island within an ocean of madness. He had to admit he liked the shape of her dream. He made a note to ask her about the meaning of it later.

"Charming little place. Do you plan to return there once you lift the curse?"

 _If_ she lifts the curse, but that remained unsaid.

"No."

"Why ever not? You've reconstructed it with much care and love."

"Being wiped out from the face of Faerun might pose a problem for any potential return."

"Really? What happened?"

"War, and me. Seriously, do you honestly have no other amusement but to question me every night?"

"I use every opportunity given to me. And you do not seem too keen on answering questions when awake. Why, you hardly pay any attention to me."

"I wish you'd take that as a hint."

"Come now, brooding so much is not good for the soul. Let's talk and I'll even let you have a glimpse at some of my secrets."

Now that piqued her interest and she looked up at him with curiosity. Like a fish gazing at the hook.

"Real or imaginary ones?"

A suspicious fish. And suspicious fish usually meant an empty stomach.

"That depends on the question you ask."

Ele'ena's blue eyebrow arched.

He wasn't going to tell a thing.

He looked at her curiously then, as if he only just noticed something. "Why do you refer to yourself differently when awake?"

At that moment she looked uncomfortable and very young.

"My given name was Ele'ena."

He raised an eyebrow expecting her to continue. "And?"

"And I've changed the name because I changed, and I don't want to be recognized."

"By back-flipping it?"

He was grinning, she just knew it but she didn't look as she was being busy blushing.

"I never said it was a good way. And you don't have to be such a snob about it."

It seemed to her that Gann could smile even while he was turning someone's dream into nightmare. No. He would definitely grin like a maniac while turning people's dreams to nightmares.

"Why?" He settled in under a tree.

"Urgh... why what?"

"Why wouldn't you want to be recognized?"

She pressed her lips in a thin line, "I am somewhat of an infamous celebrity back home. I do not need all the baggage that goes with the name."

"So you've run to Rashemen. A more extreme version of running away from home."

An acorn hit his head.

"I've already told you that is not how I came to be in Okku's barrow! Hells, I don't even know what happened after…" She fell silent for a moment. Some memories were better off not stirred. "I've heard you talk about me today, you and Kaelyn."

"Hmm? Oh, a spirit-eater is always a popular subject for conversation, especially among us potential food produces." Gann had laied himself down and closed his eyes. A moment later, another acorn hit his head, and this time more forcefully. It made him flinch, it made him grin but he kept any comment he might have to himself.

"She mentioned that I am making recovery."

"Wouldn't you notice such a change?"

"I'm a bit busy to notice the subtleties. It's difficult enough ensuring survival on both fronts."

He opened his eyes and rested his head on his curled hand.

"I understand that the struggle for a spirit-eater to contain the curse must be difficult, but this sounds…"

"Why do you think I don't sleep anymore?" She asked, looking at him with all seriousness. Honestly, did the hagspawn get nothing?

"So you could enjoy gazing upon my beauty day and night?"

Ele'ena groaned, shoving her face in her hands. She should have expected that. She had it coming anyway. Then the drums started, heavy and distant but with a steady rhythm. And it was getting closer. The owner of the dream and the uninvited guest both looked up at the same time.

"You better leave now," she said through her fingers.

Instead of contradicting her he stood up and dusted off, dreams being what they are, an imaginary speck of dirt. And when he looked at her she wasn't moving, her hands still covering her mouth.

"I can only say that I do hope tomorrow night will be just as pleasant and peaceful as this evening was," he said as goodbye before the mists took him to wander other dreams. And before the drums became incredibly loud.

Ele'ena didn't give any indication of caring about him inviting himself over for another nightly visit.

"With the Faceless Man on the loose... I doubt it..."


	3. Chapter 3

It was a pure luck indeed that there was a rock not covered in snow along their path. Not that it mattered. Aneele had to sit for a moment and she didn't give a damn what the rest of her group thought about it. In her head thundered.

Drums, drums, always those damn drums. Did that thing never rest?

She just had to sit. She just had to-

"Are you tired? Do you require rest?" Safiya was almost instantly by her side. Of all her companions it was the Red Wizard who concerned herself with Aneele's health the most. It was unclear whether it was some kind of strange wizardly obsession with strange curses or genuine concern.

"Just…hungry," was elf's quiet, even answer. And, of course, it was not an answer anyone wished to hear. Okku least of all. He showed that clearly with grunting.

"No need to be such a grump, Old Father Bear. Not even she can suppress it for so long," Gann approached nonchalantly. Okku raised his snout to sniff the air.

"There are no undead in this area for her to feed on," he said finally.

But Aneele's condition wasn't going to wait for any special circumstances of its own. Her one good eye started to fill with blackness signaling her near loss of control. For everyone present it meant that should her control fail they all would turn into lunch in her eyes.

"There's a way to solve that perhaps." Giddy with the prospect of showing off her newest idea, and the urgency which the situation called for, Safiya started to chant. Gann guessed her intentions almost immediately though perhaps it was Kaelyn who felt it first.

"Summoning a meal for our starved friend. Ingenious! I wish we all had it that easy in the wilderness."

"Perhaps the only good thing that will come out of that spell," Kaelyn spoke calmly, and strangely, she did not seem to be looking down upon such a necromantic spell for once. But of course, as long as the spirit-eater wasn't gorging herself on anything and everything, and the balance was kept, she would support her.

A mushy zombie, also known as 'the meal', appeared in the shimmering circle and everyone took a step back. The feeding of the spirit-eater in itself was a strange thing to watch, but one did not need to be too close to 'enjoy' the sight.

Her good eye turned completely black with the curse, and shadow rose from behind her even if there was no sun. Shadowy tentacles sprouted from around her, wrapping around the walking corpse, extracting the essence needed for her survival and finally turning it to ash.

"Do you feel better now?" Safiya asked, resting a hand on her shoulder.

She took a deep breath and Gann almost expected a burp from her, though he doubted the undead tasted particularly well. He was half of a mind to ask her how elementals tasted like, the next time they dreamwalked.

"A little... Thank you." Her single red eye looked up with more liveliness than it usually possessed. Not that there ever was much in any case.

"We should reach Ashenwood tomorrow, and there's a certain burning spirit which will keep her nice and sated for quite a while."

"You don't honestly propose that she eats him?" Safiya asked in disbelief.

"Why not? It would be poetic justice of a sort. He _was_ the one to lead one of the previous spirit-eaters to the Wood Man's doorstep, so to speak."

"So she should just consume him now? He is a powerful spirit. We have no way of knowing how that would affect her," the wizardess argued.

"No way of knowing for certain but we do know that the _Hunger_ will drive her insane eventually, and," Gann looked up to see that the elf girl was walking far ahead of them. "…she is not even listening to us."

Safiya couldn't help but laugh at his observation.

"Well, you _did_ mention a powerful spirit as potential food source. Any hungry person would sprint off immediately in that direction." Safiya chuckled with good humor at Gann's frustration. In the end, the Red Wizard trusted the elf well enough not to kill herself by doing something exceedingly stupid.

Aneele did nothing else but ignore him, and perhaps in his mind she did more so then everyone else.

"To the Burning Grove then," he sighed feeling defeated. Defeated for the moment only, of course.

* - * - *

He didn't get to say a word. He didn't even have time to collect his bearings.

"Not now Gann!" Her raised voice carried across the empty space. She was struggling again. He had a feeling she was doing it more often as of late.

"Aneele?" He called out to her. He could not see her, just sense that she was around. And the feeling of a walking void was surrounding her.

"Not _NOW!_ "

Gannayev jolted awake gasping for air.

It was the first time after so long that someone had managed to throw him out of their dreamscape. An experienced dreamer perhaps, another hag could do that but not a novice of a girl with no knowledge of how the dreams work.

That one little zombie apparently wasn't enough for the bottomless pit of the Faceless Man's stomach.

He sat up and rubbed his face. What he experienced equated to having a nightmare and he hadn't had any for such a long time. He looked up where he knew Aneele had been before they all retired to rest, but was surprised when he found her not at the outskirts of the camp as he expected, but curled up against Okku.

Aneele the spirit-eater, the greatest and most deadly curse of Rashemi was cuddling an overgrown, over-colored teddy bear. Said bear was also on the menu for her next meal being a spirit and all. Gann could with safety say his jaw had hit the ground. He would also be inclined not to believe his eyes, were they not necessary for his survival.

He approached stealthily enough not to wake up the bear god, or the red wizardess and the priestess.

Aneele's eye was closed but he knew she wasn't sleeping. He knew she couldn't sleep. She dreamed constantly, but she never slept. Her left hand was resting against her favorite weapon, her ever deadly scythe. She rarely, if ever, left it out of her hands.

He moved a lock of her ashen hair from her face. In her dreams it was of different color. Midnight blue. He wondered, did the stress cause her to lose the coloring? Or a failed spell? Nothing further came to his mind that could cause such a change. He didn't touch the hair covering the wrappings of her right eye and cheek. Like tiny rivers thin scars emerged from beneath the material of the bindings and over the bridge of her nose and down to the corner of her lips. She never took off that eye-patch. And for a good reason. What lay beneath was not for the faint of heart.

Her right hand rose slowly and wrapped around his wrist.

"Busy," she said quietly with her broken voice.

"Ah," was his response but any smart retort eluded him at the moment. That she had taken notice of him, or even addressed him alone, had surprised him.

And the fact that the Old Father Bear had let her use him as a pillow was somewhat galling. The bear did try to kill her before and yet she chose to cuddle up against him. Not that such a thing should bother him, no, but he really disliked the fact that an occasionally murderous and grumpy bear took precedence over him, who joined her quest willingly. He stood up deciding to leave her alone.

"You have no fur," came a soft, broken voice from behind him.

Gann turned around instantly but she was silent, her eye closed. His mind could have played a trick on him of course but he liked to think he had more sense than that.

He returned to his place taking up watch since their resident guardian was being 'otherwise engaged'. It had been a while since it was his turn to watch over anyone.


	4. Chapter 4

The golden light of the Wood Man's tree was illuminating their camp just as well and just as warm as the Sun would, and the small company took some time to rest and eat quickly before heading back to Mulsantir by boat.

They would have set off sooner as their wounds were miraculously healed along with the Wood Man but Aneele was now tired beyond measure, and no one wished for the spirit-eater to lose control in the middle of a vast body of water with no food source in sight – not counting the crew members.

So they took their time to fill their, if not wounded then certainly empty and growling stomachs. Okku, the lucky one, did not need such attention. Instead he opted for some shallow dreaming before they were off. Spirit or not, the bear god too required recuperation from time to time.

The meal, sparse as it was in a wilderness where you didn't go off hunting beasts because the local guardian spirit was in a sour mood, was delicious, and was greatly enjoyed by the three party members that did eat.

"Has one of your voices finally taught you cooking, Safiya? For I must say, for something made in the middle of nowhere this is exquisite," Gann remarked. Mutely Safiya pointed in the direction of the lone figure of the spirit-eating girl who was sitting some distance away from the group. She always did that, distancing herself.

"Direct your praise in that direction," she said with a flat voice.

Gann looked surprised and his eyes wandered to the girl who was their leader. "You made this?" Surprise was impossible to hide in his voice.

Aneele, who was flexing her left hand over and over again, stopped but didn't answer. She did however glance at him before resuming the motion, and once again ignoring him.

"Don't be like that. I was merely complimenting the chef," he tried again but was met with resolute wall-like silence. No one could make silence solid like she did. Gann sighed. Well really, no one reacted quite without a comment to him. He decided that he didn't like it very much.

Aneele stood up then.

"You're welcome," she said finally in a quiet voice, before walking away.

Gann was not looking for her. All in the party knew what to expect from her for the most part and when she wasn't hungry, and they knew that she wasn't about to run off into the wild. Distraught as she was, her mind was far too fixed on finding the cure for her to be wandering on the side.

No, he was merely answering nature's call when he had happened upon her much later in the night at the shallow creek where Gnarlthorn once had been. And unlike other girls of her age, she wasn't admiring her image in the moonlit water. For a good reason, he thought silently.

Several healing potions were next to her and most of the bottles were empty. She had most likely broken something during the last great battle with Genius Loci and had not uttered a word about it. Gann tsked. Safiya will be all over her when she finds out about it. Honestly, the wizardess was becoming so attached and overprotective of the cursed elf, it was becoming somewhat annoying.

And then the elf girl moved her left arm, the hand she was flexing earlier. She pulled the long tunic over her head exposing her pale flesh to the biting cold of Ashenwood and started unwrapping the bandages clinging to her left arm, from her shoulder to the tips of her fingers.

Now, while it could not be said that Gannayev respected any woman's privacy – because he didn't – in Aneele's case he immediately, and uncharacteristically, turned his eyes away. And he had done it mostly for himself as it was no easy sight on the eyes.

He did dare to take a quick look at her from the shadow of some fallen treants. She was hunched over the small stream washing her face. Her narrow shoulders moved methodically showing quite clearly how thin she was. He could see the outline of her ribs and spine through her gray skin. Aneele did not eat and the _Hunger_ was not flattering her. Quite the opposite in fact, as it was starving her to death.

She stopped then, raising herself to one knee and cocked her head. A moment later she proceeded with her midnight bath. And if she had taken notice of his presence she didn't say anything. Typical.

He had noticed that even though she never said a word about it, it pained her when the subject of her grievous disfigurement arose. The fact that she appeared whole and unblemished in her dreams spoke as much. If he ever would have to choose he'd vastly prefer her dream form over her reality. But then again, wasn't that always the case when it came to him?

How her arm and face came to be that way Aneele did not tell. How they were still functional he didn't know. Safiya speculated on it, but after Kaelyn had failed in healing her, the topic was never raised again.

He opted for not approaching her at all. Being around her now was not the smartest thing in the world. She had earlier helped the Woodman regenerate and was probably starving. He would dislike it greatly if he were to be suddenly turned into a tasty little hagspawn-meal. Unless she had had a taste of local fauna, in which case Okku was going to be one angry spirit bear.

Oh dear.

Gann turned away completely then, deciding to leave her be. He would not step in her dreams tonight, there was no telling how violent she would be if she had noticed him peeping on her.

"He didn't show up tonight," Ele'ena said looking towards the edges of her dreamscape. "Can't say I blame him," she looked down at her left arm. Through the mist of the dream it started to turn back to its original boney shape. She immediately shook it off. Let the dream be a dream.

A snigger-like screech sounded next to her. She looked to her side where the Faceless Man stood chained by her will. Containing the _Hunger_ was no small job and it did not leave free hours for contemplation. Of course life would be much simpler if the thing didn't mock her half the time.

The imprisoned _Hunger_ gurgled something and while no words could be distinguished there was a definitive mocking tone underneath.

"Oh, do be quiet. It's not like you're an expert in-" she stopped herself trying to find the word that would describe what was happening between her and Gann. Failing that, she finished with much more simplicity, "this kind of things."

The Faceless Man shrugged and its meaning could be anything from 'What do I know about it?' to 'More than you do obviously.'

Ele'ena blinked, mostly at her own stupidity than at the Faceless Man's sudden expressiveness.

"Great. I'm complaining to a spirit-eating curse. I am going mad."

The Hunger let out a sound that may or may not have meant 'Did you ever doubt that?'

Since she couldn't exactly kill it - otherwise none of this would be happening - Ele'ena settled on kicking the curse violently in the trapped shin before storming off into the non-descript parts of her dream.

"No food for a week!"

It wasn’t a viable threat, but she liked to imagine what excrutiating pain she would inflict on the thing – a fair payback really – if she could only hang on to it.

* - * - *

They'd set out for the Lake of Tears garrison early next morning. With no more Fell trolls and treants around the journey was peaceful, relaxing even. Aneele seemed to be in higher spirits, or at least she wasn't walking around with hunched back, eyeing every single transparent being that happened to cross their path. She was actually paying some attention to her surroundings, surprising though it was.

She even went ahead to scout, though that was usually Okku's duty. Safiya was glad to see her in such a lively mood.

"Do you think she is in a hurry to find the cure?" She asked then.

"I cannot say, for I have no idea what goes on in her mind," Gann shrugged.

"Truly? You who boast to be able to see the true meaning behind people's words," Safiya continued, false wonder lacing her words. Gann made a face.

"As I have stated once before, I am a dreamwalker, not a mind-reader. I wish people would stop confusing the two."

"I thought you delighted in their confusion."

"My amusement can last only so long before it turns to annoyance," he said with a stony face that revealed that he was often accused of manipulating people's subconscious and that he really didn't appreciate it. The accusations, that is.

Ahead of them Aneele rolled her left shoulder and switched her scythe between hands.

"Is there nothing that can be done for her," Safiya asked the cleric once again worriedly, ending the conversation between her and Gann. Kaelyn was silent for a moment. She had been thinking about reasons behind why she couldn't do anything for the girl.

"Lessons that life gives cannot be erased, and the lesson she was to learn was written into her skin and carved into her bone. I doubt she will ever forget it," she said finally. It was the only reason that made sense to her.

"Life is a harsh teacher wizardess, but I agree with you. Healing her would certainly make her easier on the eyes," Gann said flippantly and it angered Safiya all the more. How many times had she been dismissed because of her hairstyle, or complete lack thereof? Much less often than because of her being a Red Wizard but still…

"How much more superficial can you get hagspawn?" She snapped with all the sharpness of a wizard ready to dissect someone. Gann looked at her evenly. He who was walking among dreams was not easily intimidated.

Except when the Faceless Man was speeding in his direction.

"Superficial or not, I speak the truth." He gestured in Aneele's direction. "Or did you think that, should the curse be lifted, she will be welcomed back among people with open arms? I would not be surprised if some local holy warrior mistakes her for an undead or, if she has plenty of luck, a necromancer."

"Her strength does not need your pity, spawn of hags. And she carries much more strength inside than you," Okku grunted finally.

"Only you'd perceive her scars as strength, Old Father Bear."

"Hmph. You two-legged creatures never did make any sense to me. Were she a bear and had lived despite them she would be looked upon as someone to be respected. A leader of the pack."

"Well, too bad she was not born a bear then," Gann added in silently. He didn't know why the whole subject irritated the heck out of him. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he would rather ignore all the bindings in the real world and keep imagining her as she was in her dreams.

He still remembered the time in the Sloop when she had her eye-patch removed accidently, and for all intents and purposes, he never wanted to see it again. Neither did the inhabitants of Mulsantir, he wagered. Oh, he had seen uglier things, and he had seen things that instilled more terror. But it was the wrongness, the… No, no, he didn't even want to go there it.

"In any case," he said with some finality wishing the topic closed, "we are doing our leader a disservice by speaking on the matter behind her back once again, when she clearly disapproves of it."

"Whatever she had done to deserve being taught such a harsh lesson," Kaelyn continued, "one for everyone to see, I do not know. But it will not be restored by my power. Perhaps the witches would prove more helpful."

"Perhaps, but I would not hold my breath expecting their benevolence," Gann said with notable bitterness. They would probably make things worse for her only for the sake of it.

Then, cracking through the dark mood of the group like a tiny ray of light, an acorn hit his head. It was efficiently a wakeup call. A wakeup call Gann did not appreciate. Others did probably.

"Don't dillydally," an unexpectedly calm voice spoke ahead of them.

The strangeness of the situation reached a new level, and Gann was forced to pick up his jaw from somewhere in the snow. When he looked up he saw Aneele standing few meters ahead of them, looking at them with veiled interest. Did she hear them, and him, talking about her? Because he hadn't exactly been praising her. And if she did…

Only then did the words register in his mind.

"Dilly-... _What?!_ "

Aneele inclined her head in the direction of the road before them. They had reached the Garrison, now devoid of life. That seemed to happen a lot to places they visited.

But, did she truly throw an acorn at him? In the waking world? This action of hers was blurring the line of her behavior between reality and dream, and Gann didn't know what to make of it. He only hoped that her temper-tantrums would not manifest as well, otherwise he would have to rein in his tongue considerably.

And from the look she was giving him he should start with it right now. 


	5. Chapter 5

He was getting the impression that Aneele enjoyed shocking and confusing him. Furthermore, he believed she made him into her permanent source of amusement. Anything coming from her he should take with a grain of salt, he knew, but this sight baffled even him. It baffled him so much in fact, he dared not approach.

Because seeing the unblemished and disturbingly cheerful owner of this dream and the newest infectious member of her subconscious playing cards was certainly not the sight he expected, was used to or would even dream of. It felt to be just not in the realms of possibility, imaginable or, or… it just shouldn't be!

"You cheat! By all the gods, I swear that you cheat," he heard her say and saw her point an accusing finger. Not in his direction but rather…

The _Hunger_ hissed indifferently.

"Don't take that tone with me!"

The Hunger, whose lower part was entombed in the dream-wall, crossed its arms huffing and hissing, its great scythe leaning menacingly on the wall next to it. It appeared to the dreamwalker that its fingers were twitching in desire to reach out for it.

Disturbing a sight as it was, Gann would not be deterred. He would not be frightened by something that was obviously a concoction of her mind, meant to punish him – he wasn't certain for what yet, but punishment it was – because he did not believe, as certainly as he held no belief in gods, that the scene playing out before him could be the truth.

He firmly intended to find out what the whole acorn-throwing business was about. As in, why it was always him she attacked when she decided to display emotions in the real world? And why weren't there any positive emotions, like fawning over him. No, it had to be the damn acorn to his head. Yes, he wanted an answer and he would get one!

Even if the Faceless Man was disturbingly close and had his scythe at arm's reach.

"One more then," she said. "And I'll deal this time. Bloody, cheating, shapeless…" the mutterings continued. Ele'ena was losing badly. She looked up, noticed him and returned her eyes to her cards in hand. "I'll be with you in a moment."

Gann glanced at the hunger holding the cards. He didn't ask. He felt he wouldn't have liked the answer. Noticing the puzzlement on his face Ele'ena grinned – Gann secretly fumed, for once again he was lowered to a source of amusement – and finally stood up putting her cards face down.

"My head, you don't get to cheat," she said sternly to her caged opponent while standing up. She greeted Gann with an explanation, "Ever since we located those two fragments of a mask he's become more… how should I put it? More expressive, yes, that's it."

Gann blinked.

"Oh. He has? Did he mention something about a possibility for him to leave, permanently, by any chance?"

"I'm not blessed with such good fortune. I am grateful for him," she gestured at the curse, "not trashing around so much anymore." Ele'ena rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "I'm starting to think that it's not an entirely magical curse."

"Are you growing fascinated with it? Because if you are, then I think we should banish the wizardess from the group on the basis of bad influence," Gann said with mock seriousness, though part of him was probably dead serious. Because if she did choose to start with such experiments he would be out of this group faster than a candle flame in a snowstorm.

Ele'ena gave him a cold look.

"It was thought, in a span of a relatively short time, that I must learn about my enemy in order to defeat him." And that was just about the only thing she had learned. They had not exactly allowed her to run the Keep.

"Or control," he supplied, for many have tried to control the spirit-curse. Not successfully, he added to himself.

"Never that. It has a tendency to turn against you. Usually by turning you into something nasty and undead with a skeletal head," Ele'ena grinned remembering the Shadow Reavers. They were all alive before they got involved in the whole King of Shadows… and she was not going there. That was all in the past. The past she cared not to revisit.

"Tell me-" In the silence he started to ask the question which had nagged him, but Ele'ena cut in nicely.

"You know, that was a very, very rude thing that you have done."

"And yet, it was not the rudest thing I've ever done," Gann answered without batting an eyelash. He had a feeling what this was about.

"Are we talking about the way you happened to walk in on me while I was bathing, or the way you badmouthed me? Just curious."

Gann actually looked uncomfortable there. Most of it was act, but the tiniest part of him did feel ashamed for his behavior. A tiny bit.

"Aren't you going to tell me to, ahem, get lost?"

"What's the point? You never listen to a word of what I'm saying," Ele'ena threw her arms in the air and turned her back on him.

"I beg to differ. It's only because you speak so little," he responded sagely.

She glared. She did that a lot around him.

"Why don't you wake up and see if I'm standing over your head with a hatchet in my hand."

"Such a rude thing of you to say."

"And it's not even the rudest thing I've ever said."

He caved in then. With a modest bow of his head he said,

"I can only offer my sincere apologies. It was not my intention to intrude." She looked at him suspiciously. "If it were, you wouldn't have known I was there."

"You are not making your position any better Gann."

"Was it ever good?"

"Not from where I am standing. What do you think Safiya will say to your behavior?"

"Nothing. She had already judged my character and found it lacking."

"Very well then. What do you think she will do to you if I mention certain things you did? Use you as target practice or as a lab rat?"

"Neither. The wizardess can be quite creative when she puts her mind to it."

"And you deserve it."

They lapsed into silence. The conversation wasn't going anywhere. Even Gann, always ready with a quick remark on the tip of his silver tongue appeared, for all intents and purposes, at a loss. Feeling uncomfortable, Ele'ena cleared her throat. She dearly wished the _Hunger_ would announce his presence, but out of all times, it chose now to remain silent. Uncomfortable silence settled in on them.

"Well then, I think I will be going back to the game," she said looking for a way out.

"You two… play often?" Gann inquired, glancing at the curse which seemed to be waiting patiently for its opponent to return.

Ele'ena shrugged, "He's quite manageable when he's not hungry, and it keeps him from hissing until the next meal comes along. Speaking of which," she looked at where the Faceless Man was hanging in the dream wall, "you might want to tell Safiya to summon something edible this time around."

Gann felt as if this was his cue to leave. If the _Hunger_ was, well, hungry, then no self-respecting dreamwalker should be wandering around after dark, so to speak.

"I shall inform her then, and advise her to carefully plan the menu," he said with a theatrical bow.

"You do that."

Without much glitter and pomp he disappeared from her dreamscape.

The _Hunger_ hissed, but it sounded more like someone was dragging fingernails across glass. It was true, a healthy intake of undead things did keep things clear in her head. Ele'ena sat in front of the curse and picked up the cards. It was as good a way as any to pass the time.

"So yes, he ran off with his tail between his legs. What do you expect with _you_ around?"

Only later did Gannayev-of-Dreams realize that he didn't ask the questions which had plagued him, and that he certainly didn't get any answers. If anything, she had managed to confuse him further. For his mental sake alone, he really should avoid walking in the direction of her dreams.

The boat trip was quiet, and as usual Aneele had once again sought out solitude. The small ship was sturdy and enchanted, and she did have some knowledge of how to work about it, even if she never had the stomach for water travels. But for the moment, while she steered the ship, it was a sanctuary to her broken mind.

If she heard or felt something she didn't give any sign, nor did she make a comment when a heavy fur cloak fell over her head. Peeking from under it she spotted the not so happy hagspawn looking down at her as the wind whipped his long hair over his face. He looked particularly messed up, while at the same time trying to look somewhat dignified.

It didn't mix well.

A faint shadow of a smile formed on her lips, but it was gone just as quickly.

"If you're trying to get the wizardess to skin me alive then you're doing a fine job indeed," he said cross.

Aneele wrapped the fur cloak tighter about herself. She was confused so she ventured forth.

"Why would-"

"-she deign herself to bother with the humble old me? Perhaps because she believes it should be me freezing out here instead of you."

Aneele cocked her head looking at him.

"You don't know how to steer a boat," she added as an afterthought. Which was true enough, and Gann knew it. Safiya knew it as well, but that didn't stop her from fussing over the elf, at the expense of the poor hagspawn of course.

"She is overprotective," she said after a long pause.

"She worries about you." Aneele lowered her eye. "And I truly hate the fact that I'm the one she ends up practicing her offensive spells on, when you're the one she's angry at." At that, and his _slightly_ childish pout, Aneele did laugh. It ended quickly and was muffled, but it was a laugh. The first one after many months, even from before the fall of the King of Shadows.

And that laugh shocked him, it truly did. Clearly, he was wrong on how damaged she must be. Or it could be that she was finally noticing her recovering. He would have only liked if it wasn't _him_ she was laughing at. It made him feel foolish.

But it made her look alive. More alive than he'd ever seen her. And for a short moment it made her face light up, and made him see her in a different light. There were similarities between her dream form and reality, how could there not be?

Her face still held the shape of youth, and it was the shadow under her eye and the starvation that she was enduring that made her look older than she really was. Her skin had turned gray and her hair white, but that didn't make her look aged and withered, but simply mature. And like someone who had been through all the layers of hells.

She was actually quite pleasant to look upon from this side.

It was the other side of her face he didn't much care for.

"Down," she said suddenly interrupting his thoughts.

"Excuse me?!" He nearly squeaked. She cocked her head.

"Go down. Below deck. You've brought me a cloak, and I'll be fine," she explained. It was the longest explanation she had ever given outside of a dream.

"A measly cloak will hardly calm your watch dog."

"You'll manage."

"Are you trying to flatter me into committing suicide," he teased but she turned her back on him, looking instead across the cold sea.

"Down Gann," she said with finality and a trace of raw emotion.

He raised an eyebrow, _'Did she again…?'_ "Very well, as many times before, I shall stick my neck on the line for you," he sighed, walking away. Over the howl of the wind and the thunder of the sea he did not hear the wood cracking and shattering to pieces.

* - * - *

One day later they had sailed into Mulsantir's small harbor.

"I have never been so glad to see civilization as I am now," Safiya said stepping onto the docks of Mulsantir. Her staff flayed about as she stretched her back after a few days of staying in the small cabin.

"I wouldn't dare say that Mulsantir qualifies as the pinnacle of civilization," Gann said thoughtfully from behind. His voice always had that mocking undertone. It was what tended to annoy people about him. That, and the fact that he shamelessly walked into their dreams uninvited.

One eyebrow arched, Safiya's eyes fixed on him in the way only a Red Wizard could do.

"You wouldn't, would you? Nevertheless, it would do for a night with a hot bath, good food and a soft bed, preferably one with no bugs." She kept looking at him with that steely gaze of hers. Gann refused to kneel under it – only Aneele could do that to him – and he firmly kept in check his urge to shift his feet.

"Why don't you and Okku go ahead and secure us some rooms at the Sloop?" Safiya suggested, finally taking her eyes off of him. It wasn't exactly a normal suggestion. It was a Red Wizard Professor's patented suggestion. The kind students can't say 'no' to. They could try to resist though.

Gann was indignant, mortified even.

"Us?! Were we demoted from equal group members to lapdogs sometime on the trip back? Or have we miraculously been transported to Underdark?"

"Considering what happened last time," Kaelyn started, trying to pacify the high emotions, "perhaps staying at the Veil would be a better choice." And the last time was chaotic enough. Aneele had nearly feasted on the pirates that stayed there when one of them snatched her eye-patch away in a misguided attempt to mock her. In the end she had settled on simply killing them all instead.

"No," Safiya started sternly, elegantly cutting in on something Gann was about to reply. He snapped his mouth shut and gave the wizardess a mixture of glare and sour look. "Magda and her troop practice day and night, and intruding upon them would not benefit them or us." Her fingers drummed on her staff. "And the Sloop is an inn. They should do their job and let weary travellers like us stay in if they can pay. And we certainly can."

"So we poor servants are to arrange rooms for you lovely ladies? Staying at the Veil where we are already invited is perfectly acceptable. Surely you must agree with me Okku, you have to." But to the dreamwalker's despair, the bear god was walking in the direction of the large building named 'The Sloop'. "Okku!" He nearly wailed in desperation.

"Hmph. This pack is lead by females, young one. You should have realized this sooner."

"Unbelievable!" Gann exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air.

"Not to mention, Gann," Safiya started with an icy voice, "that staying at that theatre would put Aneele perilously close to the table she was butchered on. Surely even someone as self-absorbed as you wouldn't do that to her."

Gann winced. That was a fair point. Aneele certainly wouldn't like that. He remembered when he first walked in to that shadowy room and saw the remains of the table Aneele had vented her rage on. Safiya had later explained to him that this was the place where she had been mutilated.

Safiya allowed herself a smirk, reading his discomfort precisely.

"What do you say Aneele? Should he grovel at your feet for his lack of thoughtfulness?"

He sighed. Lately he was apologizing to her a lot. Gann wasn't accustomed to apologizing to anyone, least of all to a spirit-eating girl who could stare him down, until he felt about as worthless as a rock in a jewellery box overflowing with precious stones.

The question was met with silence, as it usually was, but it wasn't Aneele's indifference that led to the ominous lack of sound. It was more the fact that she simply wasn't there.

Safiya instantly flared. Gann felt something akin to relief. And Kaelyn was taking it all in stride. This was the way their group functioned after all.

"Where is she? She knows the Witches don't want her wandering around without supervision!"

The sad, and downright terrifying, fact was that before heading to Ashenwood Aneele was so unstable that anyone could end up as her meal. Sheva Whitefeather had declared that the spirit-eater should not be left out of sight under penalty of death. Aneele's that is.

And probably those of her companions as well.

And the greater part of Mulsantir's population if it came to fighting.

"Even a spirit-eater can't deal with your constant bickering and not eat you."

"This can't be good."

"Oh dear."

Oh dear indeed.


	6. Chapter 6

Whether one acknowledged it or not, there was some simplicity to the life of a spirit-eater. Since one didn't feel anything, one was free to wander off and away from the constant bickering of companions without feeling guilty. Which was exactly what Aneele did - down the docks, up the slope and into the market place.

She had the urge to walk around the town, as it certainly wasn't a sprawling city, and it was the first time since her awakening in the barrow that she paid any attention to its appearance. Oh, she had paid attention before, just enough to not walk into the wall. But now she was actually looking around, the houses, the people, the wandering Telthor badger.

And the market place was her first stop.

In the cloak she got from the ship, with the hood partly obscuring her face, she had hardly any problems in walking around unnoticed. Foreigners were often unused to the colder climate and would regularly don heavy cloaks, so she drew little attention.

The market stands were filled with anything and everything, from fruits and vegetables to weapons, which were predominant here, suits of armor, potions and… her eyes lit up, crafting materials. She hadn't made anything since the battle at Crossroads Keep.

She looked at metals and gems and recipe books, and ran her finger lightly over them, suddenly feeling a tiny twinge of longing when the merchant himself stepped up to her. With sandy hair and dark eyes, she vaguely recognized him as the man with the broken wagon, who had been stuck in front of the city. So he did manage to save his goods before Okku's army had arrived.

"Shelder Nuum, dear customer, how may I serve you today?" As she kept looking at him he started to recognize her as well. Not that he had any chance forgetting her; few women extensively covered in bandages would walk around instead of lying in bed. "My, if it isn't the talk of the town," he whispered nearly inaudibly, perhaps hoping she would not hear him and with narrowed eyes quickly looked around. "And your lovely companion garbed in red is not around?"

Aneele cocked her head, wondering if the man was planning to cheat her somehow, now that Safiya wasn't with her.

"She is around," the elf girl spoke, looking back at the books and ingredients. She remembered she quite liked making amulets and rings. And perhaps masks as well. She had seen many masks in the theatre. She could buy some materials and make some. Perhaps then her companions could stop looking at the bandages covering her eye.

Picking up a book, she pointed at some gems and several different metal bars.

"This," she said, and then, as if thinking about it, she pointed at the bag of holding. "And this," she said finally. All the things she wanted were not cheap, and Nuum rather doubted she had sense to pay for it.

"Of course, of course," Nuum started with a friendly smile, "but perhaps your lovely companion should be notified to pa-"

His voice made a transition to a squeak when her left arm, now much stronger than it once was, shot out and grabbed his collar, yanking him so close he could see small cracks on her skin where the eye-bandage ended. Her other eye looked at him levelly with something akin to slowly developing anger.

A small bag hit the stand with a heavy, metallic jingle. Untied as it was, the coins spilled like a tiny metal waterfall over the merchant's stand and into the dirt below. There was enough gold there to buy the entire cart, plus the merchandise.

"I am not an imbecile," she whispered in a quiet, flat tone that, strikingly, held so much menace it would make priests of Bane run away. Not that it was of any significance. The never-ending _Hunger_ of the spirit-eater would most likely make gods turn their tail and make a run for another plane.

Nuum blinked and stuttered, more than slightly shocked and a great deal more frightened.

"Should I wrap it up?"

* - * - *

Safiya moved through the back alleys of the town. She didn't know where Aneele would wander off all of a sudden. It wasn't like her. Was she looking for some solitude? Or was she out to make trouble?

She was acting more open as of late, but even with her recovery and control over the curse she would still be under heavy scrutiny of Sheva Whitefeather. She didn't even want to think about a possible confrontation and what would happen due to Aneele's lack of sympathy.

The wizardess looked at the ruined hem of her robe and huffed. She should have made Gann look through the muddy back alleys.

* - * - *

It was an oversight but not an oversight on her part. She didn't buy any tools for crafting. Nuum didn't have any. She frowned slightly. Perhaps Magda had some. They did make masks in the theatre.

The elf walked around the street until something else caught her attention. A door unlocked, and slightly ajar.

It wasn't often that curiosity would stir in her. There were some small ones, Kaelyn's obsession with the Wall, Safiya's Academy, Okku's past, Gann… well, she had learned all and nothing about Gann, but all these were snuffed out quickly under the _Hunger's_ watchful gaze.

So she was rather surprised of herself at the urge to investigate this strange sensation. She gingerly pushed the door open. The sensation of magic, and the typical jingling sound, came from one of the rooms inside. And when she walked in she spotted five men practicing magic, everything from summoning to shape-shifting. So engrossed in their studies were they that they did not notice her immediately.

Her eye rested on a man with a serious look on his face. She got the impression that he was deep in contemplation of something important. He appeared to be the oldest of the group, and judging by his demeanour, she suspected he was their leader.

"We need to change our methods. Our last outing was too close for comfort. We should…" He rifled through the papers on the table next to him, not finding what he was looking for.

The man next to him was unusually tall. A stranger in this land as she was, and given his height and stockiness, she would have easily mistaken him for a berserker, though she had never seen one wearing wizard's robes.

He was the first one to spot her.

"Quiet! It seems Moorlig forgot to lock the door again. Triyelo! Jestred! Moorlig! Stop your practicing! We have a visitor." He called to the rest of the mages whose attention was now focused solely on her. Aneele looked around, her attention seemingly slipping away from the men.

If they were angry at her for barging in… well, they should have looked the door in the first place. She conveniently ignored the breach of good behavior when she simply walked in uninvited.

"You seem to be lost. This house does not welcome visitors. Please leave," the tall man stepped towards her and quite literally towered over her. She would have to crane her neck to see his face. It was certainly much easier for her since she had no interest in him.

"I go where I please. What concern is it of yours?" She asked in a quiet voice with an eloquence quite unusual for her. And it would also make her companions gape like fish on dry land.

"It looks like this one has some spirit in her," the man, whom she now dubbed dress-wearing berserker, barked. Others, beside the oldest among them, shared this joke. Aneele's red sunken eye now fixed on him. It was not a pleasant gaze to be fixed under. It had a nasty tendency to burrow under one's skin and dig through sinew and bone until it found that tiny part of you and made it squirm like a worm on a hook.

"Be mindful of things you do not comprehend, else you may stir up a hornet's nest," she whispered. Magic crackled around the man and his colleagues. Strength in numbers and all that.

"It is you that should take care not to wake sleeping demons." Darthek spoke a threat.

If it's the demons they wanted to talk about. The spirit-eating curse arose in her and her shadow changed shape in such a way that even in the Shadow Plane she would be feared. The temperature in the room dropped and the men took a mental and physical step back, their feet taking a hint before their mind even realized what was going on.

Whispers quickly spread among them. 'Spirit-eater', they said.

"We are not looking for a fight," He said, raising his hand in a placating manner. "Our lives are in enough danger as it is."

"…from what?"

"It is of no concern to you. Please leave us be." It was the leader of this group now.

Aneele wondered and dug through her memory, trying to remember the last time she had willingly helped someone. The results of her search were not encouraging. Apparently she wasn't the most helpful of people.

"Maybe I can help?" No time like the present to fix that.

They gave her a rather doubtful look. Anyone would do that after she had just threatened them with an ancient Rashemi curse. They decided not to antagonize her further.

"Even though you are an outsider, you may perhaps be of use to us." "Rashemi men adept in the arcane arts are not allowed to live in freedom. If they do not wish to serve the wychlaran, they must either live in hiding or be exiled from Rashemen." The man signaled the three younger mages to continue with their practice and once again the room started to be filled with the sounds of magic.

"We had all chosen exile over clandestine lives."

"Death sentence," she said simply.

"Correct. If anyone were to discover that we have returned from exile, we would surely be put to death. That is part of the decision we made when we first chose exile," Vroshan continued the tale. "That is just how things are, and we knew the consequences our choice entailed. We have lived with it for so long, but the decision weighed heavily on our hearts."

" _Too_ heavily, if you ask me," Darthek sighed.

"Why return?"

"We were approached by a durthan. She promised a way to return to our families without the threat of execution. We could not pass up such an opportunity. All we had to do was to sneak back into Rashemen and provide information on the local wychlaran."

"There was a durthan in Ashenwood," Aneele started. "She wasn't pleased when she found us alive after she betrayed and left us for dead." This appeared to be sufficient information for them and they processed it quickly. Vroshan was silent for a moment.

"There is truth in what you say, but she made a most compelling argument. Her plans have been well thought out. It is simply a matter of time before she succeeds."

Aneele merely raised one ashen eyebrow. He felt complied to continue, to justify himself.

"Her ambitions are not mere flights of fancy. She has been able to amass quite a following. And if left unchecked, we have no doubt of her success."

"You do not like working for her."

"These are but a means to an end. Rejoining the families that we were taken from is more important than the wild follies of a power hungry woman."

"Lucky. I don't have a family to return to," she looked away and put her hands in the pockets of her pants. "And perhaps neither will you by the time the durthan is done with you."

The man stopped himself and fell silent. The room was still filled with sounds of magic as his fellow mages continued with their work. Finally he said,

"You make a very good point. Any time spent with our families, even if caught, would be better spent than a life of subterfuge."

"It would be nice to be able to go home now. There's no telling how long we'd have to wait otherwise. You have given us much to ponder."

Her gaze fell down at the crafting equipment she'd had her eye on since she first came in. They were delicate and small and could probably do wonders in the right hands, just as she remembered it.

"May I have those?" She asked hesitantly. The man looked surprised but nodded. Anything to appease the spirit-eater.

"Certainly. We have several sets."

* - * - *

Gannayev-of-Dreams, currently very much under stress, knew Aneele had gone to the market at one point. That merchant, Nuum, had seen her. She bought a load of crafting materials and scared the soul out of the man – he'd pity him, but the greedy merchant didn't deserve it. The gold she had given him was enough to buy off the whole caravan.

Silly girl! What had gone into her head now? A new hobby?

In a sudden stroke of inspiration he made a turn in between the merchant stands and ran towards the Veil. If she was going to work on anything, she would need a working bench. And who had them? The Veil of course.

* - * - *

Once she was out of the building, Aneele spotted Gann rushing off to somewhere. She cocked her head wondering why he was in such a hurry. She shrugged. His business was not her business.

The sun was setting and the shadows of Mulsantir deepened. Aneele unwound the rag which contained the delicate instruments and, in her own empty way, admired them. She would finally be able to do something in the long hours when she didn't sleep.

But as the shadows deepened, she failed to notice one shadow which grew longer and darker. Her eye snapped up just a moment too late to avoid the shadowy webs that suddenly sprouted out of nowhere. With a quick tug it drew her in, and for this plane the shadow portal flickered out.

* - * - *

"You do not look concerned Okku, will you not go look for her?" Kaelyn asked as the two made their way to the Sloop. She also meant to go and look for their missing 'leader', but first she wanted to discuss it with Okku.

"There is no need. She knows how to take care of herself," the bear god answered calmly walking into the shabby inn. And it was the only inn in town. Tragic, Gann would say and Safiya would wholeheartedly agree with him. Those two demanded their creature comforts.

"She had recovered, true, and she has shown great control over the curse, but she is not out of the water yet."

Okku shrugged it off, as much as a bear could. Out of all of them the bear god was least worried about her, and from where his trust stemmed he didn't tell. Kaelyn happened to agree with him for reasons of her own.

"Aneele will come back to us once she is finished with whatever made her walk away." The bear god had a more difficult task ahead of him in any case: securing rooms in the Sloop.

* - * - *

Aneele looked from shadow spider to webs holding her, and back. The spider chattered and tugged on the web contemplating a good, if not healthy, meal. With a whispered word from her, an utterly dark blast slammed into the creature.

The webs loosened and she quickly swung the scythe attached to the belt on her back down, the blade cutting the shadow with ease. Almost instantly the _Hunger_ materialized from her shadow and wrapped around the screeching creature. The Faceless Man was truly able to digest almost anything. She looked around for more enemies, even though she knew that things in Shadow Mulsantir never changed and this area was fairly empty.

Shaking off the rest of the webs, she went on to picking up her scythe and her bag of holding. It had come undone and some of her things had fallen out, the book 'City of Judgment' among them. She looked at the portal and then at the book in her hands. Up ahead was the Vault and with a shrug Aneele proceeded in its direction and away from the portal.

* - * - *

The table was set for dinner for those who actively needed food for their survival. There was some chicken, and fish, debatable how old but fish none the less, bread, cheese and mediocre wine.

"She is not in town," the dreamwalker said.

"She did not leave the town either," the wizardess supplemented.

"What remains then?"

"Shadow Mulsantir." Kaelyn reasoned. Safiya shook her head.

"Impossible. I still hold the stone."

"It is nightfall and it wouldn't be the first time someone disappeared in the lengthening shadows of the town," the winged cleric informed them calmly.

Gann grimaced and leaned back in his chair.

"Wonderful."

He was not worried. He was absolutely not worried that she had wandered off into Shadow Mulsantir on her own. He was not worried that he couldn't follow her in her dreams while she was there. No, not worried at all.

Except that once she returned he would give her a piece of his mind! In her dreams of course, since no sane man would face her directly and in the waking world.

* - * - *

The smaller shadows kept out of her way. It was the big giants that would puff out their chest around her. But Aneele was never one to have patience with fools. A long time ago she would let others deal with them. These days her scythe and the _Hunger_ spoke instead of her.

The Vault was quiet. With the mummified priests gone, and the furnace empty, only scribes remained in the library, and the sound of their bony pens on old parchment. She stood in the apparently empty room, thinking. She hadn't planned coming here, for what few planning she did, but now that she was here she could ask the chief scribe about something that intrigued her from time to time.

The sound of a gong echoed through the main level of the Vault, disturbing the all-encompassing silence, and Aneele strode over to where the chief scribe was floating. Unlike the other ghosts in this library, this one was aware of her presence. The ghostly figure turned, very slowly, to look at her. As his eyes met hers, she detected a flicker of puzzlement.

"Yes, supplicant… we are still here, by Myrkul's will," his hollow voice resonated in silence.

"I am seeking a scroll... the Lamentations of the Dead. Will I find it here?"

The ghost turned to his massive ledger and was silent for a time, his eyes narrowed, mouthing words to himself. Whatever language he was speaking seemed familiar somehow, yet she could not quite comprehend the words.

"Yes. The scroll is contained in the archives, below."

The lower level, the place where they were yet to venture despite having the key to unlock it. Even possessed with the spirit-eating curse, a powerful weapon in its own right, Aneele knew that down there awaited her death should she be so stupid and go alone. It would be either the undead to finish her off ,or the curse eating her inside out.

"You can tell from up here?"

"I know every book that has passed through these halls."

"Is there a way for me to read it as you have done?"

"The living cannot see it."

Aneele let out a soundless 'ah' and started to unwrap the bandages from her left hand. Soon bone appeared from underneath, fast and flexible as if the hand was still covered with muscle and skin, and held together by whatever hereditary power she carried as a warlock. She then removed her eye-patch revealing her face to be in no better condition than her left arm. Raw bone could be seen, with skin and tissue clinging on the edges where her face survived. Her eye, too, was lost to her forever. The cheekbone, and even the corner of her jaw with a few teeth, were exposed and could be observed in movement as she said,

"Then show me."

She could read these books, Gann said himself that she could be mistaken for an undead. He didn't know how correct he was.

The Chief Scribe had no problems with her battered appearance. The dead hardly bothered with such trivial matters, but it was true that with part of her dead and dying, she could access the scroll through him.

"Here supplicant," he handed her the shadow manuscript no living person could see, including her were she to use her good eye. "It cannot leave my presence."

"Of course not," she responded, and with a little manoeuvring from her bone hand, for her other one wouldn't be able to hold onto it, she managed to unroll the scroll and read it.

She read on, the story of Akachi the Chosen of Myrkul, favored above all. She read of his childhood, his accomplishments in the service of the Lord of Bones, his love, and finally, his betrayal. What punishment he endured the scroll didn't say. It answered some questions, but not all.

She let the scroll drop, and its shadow disappeared from her hands. Her mind, always occupied with her curse, turned the story inside and out in her head. Once they reached the lower level, she would have to look through the hard copy of it. But perhaps by the time that happened she would already know more.

The Scribes were back in their shadows with only the sound staying behind, and she stood up from the rotting desk, when she spotted something among much debris. It looked like an oversized kama, but upon closer inspection she realized it was the blade of a scythe. And while the rest of it had long since gone and the metal was tarnished, the edge was as sharp as ever. Perhaps she could shape it into something that was actually usable.

The elf looked around, not being able to tell the passage of time in this plane. She didn't know how long she had been reading and even if it did last a scant half hour she had a feeling that the others would not be so forthcoming about her wandering off.

She shook her head, readjusting the bandages that covered her disfigurements. Once, long ago, she had let other drag her around for their own purposes. This time she would go wherever she pleased to, and wherever she had to, to lift this curse; And others. _Be. **Damned**._

By the time she had stepped out of the portal in the Material Plane it was late night already. Aneele headed for the Sloop.

* - * - *

"Where were you?!" Aneele stopped as Safiya was upon her the moment she entered the inn. "Do you have any idea what would have happened if the wychlaran had seen you wandering on your own?"

"They'd be dead," Aneele offered with a confused voice.

"That was the possibility and then we'd have an entire town of berserker after us," the wizardess patronized her. The elf girl thought it through thoroughly and came to a conclusion.

"It would have been quite the feast."

Safiya blinked, and so did everyone else. Someone was very talkative tonight.

"Which is why you shouldn't be disappearing like that! Do you think you you'd be ready to leave for Skein tomorrow?" Safiya asked with a sigh.

"I was ready this afternoon." She walked over to Okku and ran her fingers through his thick coat of fur. "It was you who wanted to have a bath, eat and rest." Okku let out a sound that, by bear's definition was defiantly not a purr, but by everyone else's there was no other word for it.

Gann decided he hated that bear.

That dead bear turned spirit, with an eyesore of a fur - which she apparently liked and couldn't keep her hands off.

"Then we should all finally get some eye-shutter. This poor hagspawn certainly needs it after all the abuse our oh-so-selfless leader has put us through." He didn't miss when she looked up at him, confused. "And to think I could have done things far more pleasurable than running around like a headless chicken after a brat of a girl who doesn't know what she wants."

To the surprise of all, or not as she did a lot of unusual things lately, she swiftly grabbed the back of the dreamwalker's chair and pulled. At first it tipped back enough for him to look up into her face where she leaned over him.

There was a frown on her face. Not the distant, thoughtful frown he was used to, or the pouty one from her dreams when she wanted to throw him out and knew she couldn't. No, this frown was focused, determined, with gold and red of her eye boring into him with every intention to beat fear into every inch of his life.

He opened his mouth, to provoke her further or to defend himself but before he could say anything she let go and the chair, along with Gann, crashed onto the wooden floor with a loud bang. And before anyone could get their bearings, least of all the abused hagspawn, Aneele walked away to her room.

"You just had to provoke her," Safiya said, returning to her chair.

From the hard floor Gann added another thing on the list of things he hated.

He hated Aneele.

He hated that he couldn't understand her.


	7. Chapter 7

Having a bear god along was certainly a very good way to get some decent rooms in a not very respectable inn even if the innkeeper happens to be downright reluctant to let you have one. It was Okku's skill with people, bless him, which they had to thank for being able to rest in beds of, some would say, disagreeable quality. Though not all of them would find sleep this night.

Aneele didn't rest easily. Not that this would be the first such night for her, but tonight she found her insomnia more difficult than ever. Outwardly she was crafting a ring, her body and hands mechanically performing long since memorized movements calm and smoothly.

On the inside however, Aneele was raging.

Who the hells did they think they were to tell her where and when to go?! Was she suddenly not capable of thinking for herself, that she couldn't take care of her own wellbeing? That she needed mothering?!

Damn them all!

She fumed, plucking the grass on which she was sitting. Born of her dreams complete with a stream, the entire place looked very much like West Harbor. It was what she considered a 'safe place,' even if in reality it was no longer so.

There were no drums tonight, as the Faceless Man had fed well in Shadow Mulsantir, but she did not find any comfort in it. Quite the opposite; she grew so used to them that sometimes she missed their presence. It was the only certainty she had now, those drums. And the curse. Hugging herself and rocking back and forth, she wondered. What would she become without it?

It was then that she felt footsteps in her dreams and her frown deepened.

"I thought you had other pleasurable activities to attend to," Ele'ena said spitefully.

"Oh, I will, after I have had a few words with you," his voice was low, and held more compressed anger than she had ever expected of him. She turned around stiffly to look at him and had to wince. Ele'ena could deal with indifference and disapproval, but was not used to people being angry or hating her. She could not avoid the comparison of Gann to Bishop, the only one who ever looked at her with so much vehemence.

"Then talk and get out," she said, looking back at the stream, crossing her arms over her knees. But even if she didn't look at him she couldn't escape the voice. The voice Gann had trained through countless escapades in the dreams of others.

"I would ask you what you were thinking today, but with your current behavior that is a given," he commented dryly. Ele'ena felt as if she had just been judged and found lacking. She gritted her teeth.

"Why? Do I need permission to visit the bazaar?"

"Safiya nearly went into hysterics over your disappearance." He sounded reasonable. He also sounded accusing.

"She did fine," Ele'ena said, waving her hand in dismissal. "She's a Red Wizard, she's made of tougher stuff."

"Except, it seems, when it comes to a sulking child like you."

"Child?! In case your eyes have been damaged by too much dreamwalking, I am old enough to decide if I want to do some shopping." She made the mistake of turning in the direction of his voice, only to find him hovering over her, his face too close to hers for comfort.

"Perhaps mentioning it first would show some of your presumed maturity," he whispered, lowly staring straight into her unblemished face. Ele'ena all but pulled back, but her righteous indignation was stronger than the other, uncomfortable feeling she was having.

"Why should I, when you don't? Or do you tell anyone about your nightly visits now?" His face grew dark at her cutting words. His nightly activities were between him and the dreamer in question, and no one else's business, and he intended to tell her as much when she continued quickly, "And when Okku, whom I tried to eat, trusts me enough to be on my own then perhaps you and Safiya should follow his example. Not even Kaelyn made a fuss about it."

Gann was silent for a moment. A moment, it seemed to her, in which he was gathering the necessary ire to shape it into words.

"Old Father Bear trusts in your ability to keep the beast at bay, your irrational behavior, however, leaves a lot to be desired."

Her patience had finally snapped.

"I dare you to say that to my face, instead of sneaking behind in my dreams," her voice rose all of a sudden, drowning out all other sounds. There was much truth in what he said, truth the old Ele'ena had seen in Daegun's eyes and did not like to hear. And yet she had managed to strike Gann silent because her words held truth as well.

No one in their right minds would face Aneele the spirit-eater, the age-old curse of Rashemen. She, who could snuff you out of existence without lifting a finger, always hungry, and always in a foul mood.

"Do you all feel the need to keep me on a leash?" She asked finally in what sounded like a resigned voice.

"If that's what it takes to keep everyone from worrying about you."

"Well then," she continued, quietly turning her back to him again, "I'm here now, and you can go on your merry non-worrying way."

"And are we to expect more such incidents from you?" He asked, still looking at her hunched back.

"I don't know. Maybe not," her voice was distant, lethargic.

He had seen this before, people retreating, hiding in their little world. Sometimes he wondered if she was even in control of her body, or if she passively watched as the Hunger walked around wearing her skin.

He stood up stiffly. He felt like he had accomplished nothing.

Ele'ena watched him leave from the corner of her eye.

And then she ran her fingers through her hair. They were worried. Well, she knew that Safiya would be, though she had, for the life of her, no idea why. She didn't like it when people worried about her, it made her conscience scratch and hiss like an irritated cat. But they did keep her on a leash, just as she kept the _Hunger_ on a leash. She didn't like the feeling.

' _I bet it is not happy about it either,'_ she thought with a sad smile. As for Gann… Ele'ena had long since decided not to think about him. It was enough that he saw fit to pop up every bloody night. Good for nothing…

She rubbed her face, trying to wash away some of her anxiety. It didn't work.

It was official. Her life had been derailed from the non-existing course of her life.

And just as she thought she could continue to wallow in pity and despair she felt a presence enter her dreamscape. After Gann started to trample through her dreams on a regular basis, she had become extra sensitive to whatever intruders there might be.

"Can't you just leave me be?" She asked tiredly turning around and then stopped, mouth agape. This was no hagspawn standing there, but something similar enough.

"Such pleasant dreams you have deary. Such deep and rich dreams you have," her raspy voice said, with an unmistakable cackle. Ele'ena couldn't move paralyzed by fear, as one of the hag's clawed green fingers trailed down her cheek.

Coward she was. Coward she remained.

It was the choking sensation that awoke Safiya, and probably everyone else in the inn. Only seconds later the piercing scream and a wave of magic shook the building as well. Suspecting there could only be one source to this disturbance, Safiya was instantly on her feet and was quickly followed by Kaelyn, who looked quite peculiar without her heavy armor on.

Okku rumbled out of the room he shared with Gann, though the hagsapwn was nowhere in sight.

There was another wave of magic and the choking sensation grew. Sounds of furniture breaking were coming from Aneele's room. Anyone sensitive in town must have felt her outburst and magical discharge by now. They threw open the door, and behind it something akin to a nightmare waited for them.

Chairs and table and bed were smashed to pieces, and waves upon waves of eldritch energy were being emitted from her person as she had her fingers dug in her hair, stumbling around the room. She looked like she was desperately trying to shake something off.

Safiya rushed over immediately, and even with all her magical protection she could still feel the cold bite of eldritch energies flashing around her.

"What is happening with her?" Safiya asked, trying to restrain the elf.

"She is dreaming," Kaelyn answered holding the girl's face in her pale hands, trying to force her naturally healing touch to reach to her mind. Suddenly she spread her wings and jumped back, pulling Safiya along. "Stay back," she said to the wizardess sharp glare.

Aneele screamed.

It was then that the _Hunger_ lashed out.

* - * - *

In the dreamscape between many dreams he walked without looking where to, confident that his instinct would lead him to his destination. He was not in the best of moods when he left her dream. Gann didn't know whether Aneele was naturally so unpredictable and difficult to deal with or if she suffered from violent mood-swings.

He noticed something then. Something that hadn't been there before.

Around his hand and wrist there was a thin, nearly invisible thread, flickering in and out of view. He made a face, sighed, and rubbed his eyes tiredly. The experienced dreamwalker had seen this before, though he never allowed such a thing to happen to himself.

He looked around and sure enough, there were three more lines shooting off in various directions. He smirked. For someone who presented herself with insistent independence she was quite needy and clingy to others.

Yes, there was one for Safiya, red as her robes. Kaelyn's was white and shimmering, Aneele obviously wasn't as impressed with Dove's black eyes as he was. And…a clearly visible and thick one in all the garish colors of the bear god.

Gann's already sullen mood turned even darker. The bond around his hand was dull in color, grey and blue, and so thin one would have to strain one's eyes to see it.

Why did she bother bonding him if she didn't think much of him? Although, he had to admit that it wasn't unusual for a dreamer inexperienced and new to dreamwalking as she was to do so unintentionally.

He was roughly roused from his thoughts when her scream pierced the dreamscape. A scream so filled with terror that any and all ideas of ignoring it because of their argument fell right out of his mind. He quickly followed the thin thread back to her dream.

* - * - *

"Use that magic of yours for something useful Red Wiza-!" Okku's gruff outcry was cut short when an inky tentacle of the _Hunger_ wrapped around his snout. He quickly used his massive paws to tear through it.

"I will if you use that overgrown body of yours to hold her down!" Safiya retorted with equal ferocity as the tentacles tried to pass her magical shield and staff, and latch onto her throat. She quickly used her magic to push it back.

Kaelyn did not like to see anyone suffer, but if Aneele would somehow manage to leave this room then the entire town of Mulsantir would be doomed. But on the other hand, Kaelyn the Dove had a higher goal and she needed the spirit-eater.

She prayed to Ilmater that she need not destroy Aneele's body tonight.

* - * - *

He had found her struggling in turmoil of what was once her place of solitude, against nothing less than a hag. He had to stop, shocked by the scene playing out before him. He had heard of hags invading dreams, but in all his dreamwalking adventures he had never had the misfortune of meeting one.

Aneele's dream wrapped around two figures as the hag dug her claws into her dream-likeness. In the distance, the drums started, heavy beat far away and quiet for now.

Wherever Aneele had kept it locked, it was free to roam now, but the hag paid little attention to the sound, focusing instead only on the dreamer before her. And his time, for thinking time was growing short, Gann knew he had to stop the hag before the _Hunger_ came, or the hag would ruin her mind.

He rushed over, using his ability to manipulate dreams, and created a wall, using it to separate the hag from the girl. He caught the elf girl before she fell down, shivering and coughing in his arms. Her conscious seemed to drift away from her eyes.

Her dream was already unstable from her fear and lack of focus, and he and the hag were the only ones keeping it steady. But it was Aneele who was needed to keep the _Hunger_ at bay. If only he could wake her up from this trance the hag had put her in.

The hag screeched and cackled as she broke through the wall. She pointed one crooked finger at him.

"You wear a pretty mask, my sweet little nephew," she cackled, "in dreams and in life. But that can't hide the family resemblance underneath," her wide grin showed her dark teeth, and she rushed forward to him and the unconscious girl in his arms with every intention to rip out their minds.

Gann pulled his hand up and shaped the dream around them into a shield.

"Nothing worse than meeting undesired family in a place you least expect," he whispered darkly. In his arms Ele'ena had started to come around, her eyes clearing out from terror. But it was too late.

Drums. Loud. Threatening.

So close he felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand up, and the dreamscape freeze around him. They were so loud now that Gann could feel his heart beat in synchrony with them.

The hag paused her tries to bash the shield. She too was puzzled by the strange sensations dominating the dream.

In a flash of light, black and white, the hag's arm from shoulder down, fell off. The hag stood in shock. Gann stared wide-eyed, and could feel Ele'ena's hand clutch into the fur of his armor. And the Faceless Man, pale and bright, stood behind the hag with a scythe in one hand and the hag's arm in the other.

Even if it had no mouth to speak of, an impression akin to mouth watering was coming from him and could be felt by all present. And it only intensified as the hag's severed arm was slowly devoured by its hand. A piece of the hag's soul had just disappeared for good.

The hag turned around, still strong and confident, still having no idea what she was facing. And even if she did, it would be too late to turn and run. She wanted to wrap a nightmare around it and suck it dry, but that was impossible to do on a creature born of emptiness.

A Mouth opened like stitches being torn, and with its free hand it grabbed her remaining arm and brought his scythe down, cutting her in half at her waist. The hag's form became ethereal and for the abominable curse, her soul was easy pickings. She cackled, screamed and gurgled, all at the same time as she disappeared in the luminous light that was the Faceless Man.

The _Hunger_ towered above Gann and Ele'ena, letting out a piercing and inhuman sound that could cut through dreams and planes alike.

"I don't think he did that to help us," she said, trying to outshout the drums.

"And I think that he decided that we're his next meal," Gann said, holding onto her tightly. The Faceless Man advanced towards them, brandishing his scythe high. It was no longer hungry, but it was drunk on the taste of a powerful soul and it wanted more. It was its luck that a spawn of hags was dropped right into its lap.

"Hold it back!" Gann yelled in her ear, but suddenly he realized that he wasn't holding on to anything.

Aneele wasn't there. Looking up quickly, he realized with horror that she was some distance away, still on her knees with the _Hunger_ looming over her. It regarded her with some strange curiosity before the curse changed shape from humanoid to that of a massive shapeless form, ravenous and set to devour as it surrounded its host from all sides. The last thing he saw before waking up were her tear-stricken eyes as she cast one last look in his direction.

And then the _Hunger_ swallowed her.

In one moment he was staring at the ceiling of his room. In the next he was on his feet and rushing to the room where all the commotion was. Upon entering, he was greeted with even greater chaos.

Safiya, Okku and Kaelyn were trying their best to contain Aneele to her room without hurting her. At the same time they were very much trying to stay alive in the process.

The shadow of the _Hunger_ gathered around her feet, crawling and clawing on the floor like it wanted to leave, escape from this shell and drop the mask it was wearing.

"What is happening to her?" The Red Wizardess asked breathlessly when he pulled her out of the way of one of the _Hunger's_ many tentacles. "And where the hells have you been?!" She added as an afterthought.

"Gathering information, my dear Safiya," he answered calmly, ignoring her questioning look and not taking his eyes away from the elf girl. Aneele herself did not appear conscious, but was rather reacting to what had happened in her head. Her body now truly a skin worn by the Faceless Man as it lashed out both outside and inside.

"I believe the curse just devoured her," Gann said. Safiya looked shocked.

"No, she wouldn't survive up until now, only to succumb in the middle of the night."

"Isn't that how it usually happens?" he muttered darkly.

Then, to everyone's surprise, relief and slight apprehension, just as suddenly as the fit came, it stopped, the _Hunger_ frozen in place. And then it was pulled, sucked right back in, and Aneele collapsed. Surprising even himself, Gann was right beside her.

"She managed to drive it away," Dove whispered softly.

He kept one arm around her back, and her head was leaning tiredly against his chest. Spasms in her body were slowly subsiding.

"The double attack of both the Hag and the _Hunger_ exhausted all her willpower," he said quietly.

"I am surprised she survived it," Kaelyn said, running her healing hand over her forehead. "But I believe she will recover." She finished and stood up, shaking her wings just a bit. "Put her to rest Gannayev, as much as she's able to, and in the meantime prepare for the walk to Skein." Gann made a turn with Aneele in his hands, and placed her in the bed.

"Do you think we should leave just now?"

"She will be angry once she comes to herself, dreamwalker. Very angry."

Gann looked at the resting elf's pale face.

"Will she now?"

* - * - *

The innkeeper showed for a few moments only. Just enough to count his guests, especially those who had unsettled depths, as renting a room to the spirit-eater could prove to be highly unprofitable. After he settled the payment for the demolished room, and a promise that they will never stay at his inn again, he returned, grumbling, to his room, leaving the party of three humanoids and one spirit bear to themselves in the dimly lit common room.

Ankles crossed and feet resting on the table, Gann explained the situation tiredly.

"They did not target her because she is a spirit-eater. Her dreams are gaining depth and have drawn the attention of Coveya Kurgannis."

"Excuses! It was neither your nor their place to intrude where you do not belong!" Safiya exclaimed, all riled up at the realization that the hagspawn was acting like a peeping tom. She could, however, deal with him later. "But whatever had drawn them here, they've caused Aneele to fly off the handle. It's impossible to tell how she is going to act now," Safiya paced back and forth in the room.

Gann rubbed the bridge of his nose. He couldn't remember the last time he had had a headache like this. This night proved to be more eventful than even he could handle.

"We don't know how she is going to react most of time, Safiya. One hag is not going to change her irrational behavior."

"No, she might only worsen it. And she was making so much progress. Damn it all!"

The door opened with a creak, and everyone went silent.

Aneele appeared in the doorway to the common room. With a scythe strapped to her back and pouches lining her belt she was dressed and ready for battle; Not that it ever stopped in her head. She would look like her usual self, were it not for her face having sunk in further, and dark circles shadowing her eye. She looked like someone who had just gotten up from their deathbed. Or was heading in that direction.

"We leave now." Her voice was both hollow and raspy but also filled with a promise of vengeance and the _Hunger_ unleashed once they reached the Coven. That voice, cold and heartless, did not sit well with her companions. With slight but quickly covered confusion Safiya uncrossed her arms.

"Now?" She asked.

Okku raised his head.

"Are you certain, little one? The struggle must have taken a heavy toll on you."

"I'll eat on the road," she said, crisply walking to the door without looking at them. "I'll wait outside."

Her companions shared a worried look.

In the darkness of the late night Aneele leaned against the wooden wall of the inn. She wasn't feeling particularly tired. In fact, she would dare to say that she felt somewhat relieved. That burst of anger was the first true feeling she had had in a long while. And such a relief it was to feel again, even for a short moment, even if it was murderous intent. She resolved that she'd hold on to it, for as long as she could.

With a slight movement of her shoulder, and a quiet groan she rolled to lean on her side, her head resting against the wall, her ashen colored hair resembling a white stain on the dark wood.

"The show is over, old witch. You can show your face now," Aneele said with a sigh. "Or a mask, at least."

Sheva Whitefeather stepped out from the gloom of the moonless night. Her mask hid her features completely, but no colorful feathers could hide the rigidity of her stance, and the white knuckled tension of her hands.

"Have you come to check upon the ravenous spirit-eater? Because if you'd have shown up just a little bit earlier you might have seen it in all its uncontrollable glory."

"Watch your tongue girl!" Sheva's voice lashed out like a whip across Aneele's face but as with everything else, she showed little reaction to it – if a raised eyebrow could be considered a reaction. "You've put the entire town in danger with your reckless behavior. Do not think that it has escaped our notice, your frolicking in town today," the witch continued with a harsh, accusing voice. "And your loss of control tonight is unforgivable." The eyes of her mask focused on the door behind the girl. "And where are your keepers?"

"Hauling their gear, I imagine." Aneele shrugged leisurely and continued lazily, "Leaving? Oh yes, as we wouldn't want to pose a threat to your little spirit-rich town. Another 'loss of control', as you call it, would hardly end well for the people living here."

The short sound of a slap sounded briefly in the night.

"You're a cruel creature, spirit-eater. I'd like to say I hope for your demise, but that wouldn't put an end to the curse." Sheva pulled back her hand and disappeared in a beam of light.

Aneele touched her stinging cheek not giving much thought to what the witch had said. She understood enough. The Wychlaran hated the curse, and through it they hated her.

With a tilt of her head she wondered how Uncle Duncan would have reacted if someone had called his innocent little niece cruel. She came to the conclusion that he would have a jolly good laugh, pat her head and tell whoever it was that he was speaking rubbish.

Aneele let out a cackle, not unlike that of a hag.

Good old Uncle Duncan. Wouldn't he have a heart attack now?


	8. Chapter 8

The Atmosphere remained heavy throughout the night and into the morning but it was not due to Aneele that it was so, but rather the tension her companions created in waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. Not yet. Not on the outside.

The day may have been clear and sunny, but dark clouds were gathering in the spirit-eater's mind. Aneele was acting less and less like a hungry animal on the trail of a delicious beast and more like a hunter with murder on her mind. Strangely enough she wasn't the one leading the party, but was rather walking far behind the rest of them.

Now, unlike the trip to Ashenwood which was by boat, or the travel to Wells of Lurue which had been very close, their travel to the Sunken City was proving to be long and hard. Safiya did not enjoy it.

"We should have bought horses."

"Is the fabled endurance of the Red Wizards failing you?" Came a voice very much galling to her ears. Safiya and Gannayev-of-Dreams did not get along as of late.

"If you do not turn your flawed sense of humor in another direction, hagspawn, I will take a page from our esteemed leader's book and scare manners into you. Red Wizard style."

"Put fear into me? Hardly, wizardess. I have seen many things and I fear but a few, and you are not among them." He snorted, placing his hands on his hips in a theatrical manner, "Violent women. Why does everyone in this group want to hurt me?"

"Perhaps because you live to irritate us so much," a quiet voice spoke right behind him, and if Gann did not jump out of his skin, then he was very close to it. He grew a little pale too. Of course, right afterwards blood hit his face. Hard.

But Aneele wasn't there to stay and she moved past them as Safiya hid her smirk behind her hand. The day was turning good for her.

"Who would have thought that the terror of all fathers in Rashemen would skirt at the sight of one young girl." Yes, having fun at Gann's expense was a treat of the day for the Red Wizard.

"I do not skirt around her. And name me one creature in this world that isn't on their best behavior around her," Gann rebelled defensively and all good mood from the wizardess vaporized.

"You, obviously, or you would have spared her your presence in her dreams."

"You are not going to badger me over that again are you, Safiya? If she did not mind it then you should keep your peace as well." He was growing tired of this argument. It was like dealing with an older, overprotective sister of the girl he was curious about. Needless to add, the older, overprotective sister had firepower at her disposal.

"Whether she minded it or not does not excuse your behavior of taking liberties with the girl's broken mind!"

"Is that the only way how you see her? Broken?!" Gann all but growled, but Aneele was already walking away from the two. She joined Kaelyn who was drinking water from the water skin. Always in small sips, just like a bird. When the spirit-eater approached she looked up at her and then at the bickering duo.

"They are afraid of you. And afraid for you."

Aneele tilted her head.

"I know."

"The predicament doesn't seem to bother you."

"They have reason to be. I am dangerous." Her one eye narrowed at Kaelyn, "You are not. Not as much."

"I have a mission to fulfill. Fear of you will not take me where I need to go, or help me with what I need to do."

"The Wall?" Aneele asked, raising her dull eye to meet Kaelyn's black ones.

"Yes, the Wall. It must come down for the sake of all the souls that did not deserve to be trapped in there and waste away for eternity." Black fire was in her eyes, her voice, and in her soul. Aneele looked away.

"I would not consider the Wall my problem, even if I may end up there in the end," she said quietly. Kaelyn looked surprised, her voice confirmed it.

"You belong to the faithless?"

"No, but worshipping her does not give me any guarantees."

"Even at the price of your soul, you still do not consider the Wall unjust?"

"As much as anyone, but it will not go down until the gods say it to go down. And that day is long away."

"That day may be closer than you imagine, for I will not relent in my mission to bring it down."

Aneele nodded.

"If that is what you want to do. My task is to remove the curse."

"And then? What will you do?"

"Be alive." She said that with such simplicity that there was no doubt that it was her sole reason to live. Her face turned to the still raised voices. "They are arguing. Again."

They stood on the side, watching the heated argument Gann and Safiya had at some distance from them. They couldn't hear them clearly, but the wild gesticulation spoke for itself.

"Safiya is not happy."

"If Okku were here he would say, 'she protects you like a mother bear would her cubs'."

"She doesn't need to."

"And yet she does."

"I wonder why sometimes."

"Asking her would be the only way to get the answers you seek."

"Because of her mother she says. There is more to it."

"If you are correct then she will tell you when she is ready. Or when she herself realizes what drives her." Aneele nodded but learning Safiya's reason could wait. Coveya Kurgannis could not. "Safiya can be quick to anger but I admit I have never seen Gannayev in such an agitated state."

Aneele didn't look up as she used her eldritch powers to create fire floating in her hand. She regretted not having such control over them before. Apparently it was took an ancient curse to get her mind to connect with her abilities.

"Gann is a private person. He doesn't take kindly to people meddling in his affairs." Because affairs they were, in her humble opinion.

"You know him surprisingly well for speaking so little to him. Did the dremwalking séance with him give you a greater insight?"

"I thought it was rather obvious," she snuffed the fire out with a wave of her hand.

"If so then only to you," Kaelyn said with a small smile. "I've been meaning to ask, which god did you-" but Aneele was no longer there, choosing to wander off somewhere again.

* - * - *

He had to admit that he was a bit reluctant to wander into her dreams after what had happened so recently. Before he didn't know whether he would walk into the Faceless Man or just a temperamental blue elf, now he was afraid that something much worse was spawned from the crevice of a broken mind.

Her dream looked vastly different now. Gone was the village of her youth, the happy memories that anchored it, in its place instead was the Shadow Vault, cold and dark as it was in reality. And she stood next to one of two great murals of the Crusade. And it was not the blue elf he knew.

This was the replica of her as she was now, her bony arm exposed. And he had no doubt that should she turn he would see the chunk of her face that was missing. Whatever happened in her confrontation with the Faceless Man she did not manage to leave it unscathed.

"What happened?" He asked the first thing that came to his mind, and flinched faintly as he heard his voice echo through the dream-vault, just like it would in the real one.

"In the dream?" She didn't turn around as she spoke in a calm, collected voice. He had never heard her sound like that. "The Faceless Man ate me. A part of me." She ran her skeleton hand across the mural of the Crusade. He knew who she meant and he felt a shiver run down his spine and a sense of loss fill him. "That last part of the girl who would run away at the first sight of problems. I liked her," she said after a pause, "and now the _Hunger_ has taken that as well."

"I take it I will no longer have the pleasure to see that charming blue elf," he watched her turn around and was strangely sorry to see he was correct. The bone of her eye, the cheek and the corner of her jaw were exposed. He was sorry, but he felt no fear, not in dreams that were his kingdom.

"I guess you won't. You'll have to satisfy yourself with me, if possible." He somehow doubted it. "But why do you come here again? There is no blue elf to entertain you anymore."

"I merely wished to talk and you seem more open now than ever."

"About?" She felt his eyes pass over the exposed bone. It was not a question one could just ask. "Ah. Well, this is not something we should discuss like this."

She was willing? Stunning.

"Like what then," he asked with thinly covered apprehension, but she only waved a hand in front of his face and in the next moment he found himself looking at the starry sky and could hear waves hitting the shore gently. She was getting better at controlling her dreams, he thought. If she kept this up, soon she would be able to enter his dream at her will. Manipulate even. Not necessarily a good thing.

Looking around he found her sitting on a patch of beach that wasn't covered with bodies, small against the rising moon. Smaller than she was in dreams. He moved to sit next to her on the sand. The sun had set but she had let them rest some more.

Her arms were crossed on her knees and her chin was resting on them. Under the mess of her white hair he could see that sturdy leather eye-patch. It seemed she had not gotten around to making that mask yet.

"Is this a better way to talk then?"

"You can't use dreams for everything, Gann."

"I can try."

"Typical dreamwalker," she whispered, and he couldn't tell whether it was in disappointment or amusement. "If you wish to ask me something, do so to my face."

"I would think that dreams are more intimate than this way of talking."

"They are, which is why you shouldn't use them lightly."

"That's half the fun," he pouted but grew serious soon. "Would you mind telling me how you've earned such difficult scarring?"

"Not for free."

"And how much will it cost me to acquire this information? Not too much I hope, for I am very much penniless."

"Not much, not your soul. Just your past."

"Why didn't I see that coming?"

"It's a fair price. But if you think that's too much…"

"Blackmail I call it."

"If it is, then only by your own curiosity." He grew quiet now too watching across the water. His past was not something he enjoyed talking about.

"You don't trust me?" He heard her voice, and then was stunned when he felt her hand pat him on the head. "It's alright, I don't trust myself either."

"A relief. For a moment I thought you would say that you do not trust me."

"That too."

He had a feeling she was teasing him and looked at her to see if she was grinning, but he saw that she wasn't. Of course she wasn't, he thought.

"Very well. I was born in a city that lies beneath water… where this city is, I do not know." He stared out into the distance, "I see it sometimes in my dreams, but its location eludes me. As do the faces of my mother… and my father, if they existed at all."

"Did you ever try to find your homeland?"

"No, because I dream of it - it is close, a place of night and flowing water through stones. I..." he paused to swallow, "feel its presence sometimes, but I do not know if I ever truly wish to return. It cast me out once, and I do not think I would enjoy being treated the same way a second time." His voice grew painfully quiet, "And… and I fear that my mother was not the ruling power there."

And now they were sitting at the very beach of the city of his birth. Fate was an ugly thing. They grew silent before she spoke.

"It was in the battle against the King of Shadows. Ugly, powerful creature. I lost my arm to his sword and my eye to an arrow from a man who hated me very much. I still don't know why." Her eye glazed over, but true to her emotionless state she did not show how much the memory pained her for surly it had to. "I was never much of a fighter and I will be first to admit that I was careless in that battle." She touched her sleeve covered skeletal arm, "Careless and scared."

"And your companions, couldn't they help?"

She shook her head.

"We were overwhelmed. The undead, the shadow reavers… a never-ending wave of enemies including several traitors. And then the building where we fought came crushing down on us. I don't remember what happened after the rocks fell."

She didn't say anything afterwards. It was clear to him that whoever salvaged her from the debris did not bother in healing her wounds beyond what was necessary to keep her alive. Again, fate proved to be cruel to one so young.

After some time they both spent in remembering things lost, she asked a strange question.

"Can you tell me a little about your parents?"

He smiled a cocky smile but it was devoid of actual sentiment.

"Oh, I can indeed tell you but a little, for little is all I knew of them. A human for a father, yes, a hag for a mother, yes, but who they were... that is not known to me."

"Good riddance to them, then," She responded with an uncanny bitterness, but he chuckled, agreeing with her. Between them there was no love lost for their parents.

"And that is exactly my feeling in the matter as well. If they cast me away, so shall I do the same." He looked over to where the rest of the group were and saw them getting ready for the trials ahead. "We should move soon, but first, there is something I must share with you." He looked at her with seriousness.

"Your Dreamer's Eye had been opened for some time now. I suspect it had happened at the same moment your curse fully awoke."

" _Another_ curse? You'd think this land would have run out of them by now."

"It is not a curse, not a burden like the hunger that consumes you now. It is a gift of the land, and a gift of the dreaming."

She looked at him suspiciously.

"Whether you realize it or not, the power of the land, even dreams, have become tied to you." His voice took a note of deep respect. "We can now speak with their voice, and it is a powerful gift. Some are only gifted with a Dreamer's Eye, but to be given a Dreamer's Voice… it is one of the rarest of gifts."

He respected the spirits of the land more than he did any other creature. In her own way Aneele agreed with that people, living and undead, usually proved to be too problematic to deal with.

"And the Dreamer's Eye? Is it now closed?"

"No, if anything it is strengthened, though the voice will absorb its power and shape it into something else. You will find that you can see even more clearly than before, and better, speak more clearly of what you see." Aneele frowned and looked away.

"This land has 'blessed' me enough, I refuse."

He smiled kindly to her. "It is not something you can refuse. It is like refusing to breathe, and that seldom turns out well, I've found." He leaned forward and with two fingers touched the center of her forehead. "Your Dreamer's Eye is now opened," Aneele felt his fingers trail down her nose, across her lips and stop at her throat. A most peculiar sensation tingled beneath her skin where her vocal cords were, one she could not remember having before.

"As is your Dreamer's voice."

"I suppose I cannot refuse that either," she took a deep breath and pulled away from his touch with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Are you always this difficult to please?"

"I wouldn't know. No one had ever tried to before."

"I can tell why. Not even my talents would be enough to satisfy you. I have finally met my match," he closed his eyes and sighed deeply and mournfully. "A sad day indeed." He opened one eye and saw Aneele search the beach with a determined look sent straight from hells. Gann's always clever smile spread across his face. "It's no use. There are no acorns for you to throw here."

Aneele frowned feeling annoyed at her thwarted efforts. She then looked down at the beach where the waves lulled against the shore, along with bloated corpses.

"There's plenty of gold."

He laughed. It was a pleasant sound to her ears.

"So there is," he stood up dusting the sand from his armor. "Come, the others are probably already waiting and I would not like to set off your red watchdog again."

"You deserve it," Aneele remarked casually. Gann's face took that 'thou-shall-not-argue-with-a-spirit-eater-for-they-will-have-the-last-word' expression he had worn often lately.

There was a spark of magic interrupting their banter and across the beach they could see a Shadow Portal open where Safiya, Kaelyn and Okky stood. Safiya waved them to hurry exultant in the presence of magic as only a wizard can be. Aneele quickly buried that thought.

"Oh. It appears we have found a way in." He turned to look at her but she was looking across the water. "What is it?" Following her gaze he noticed it was the large tentacles of the unknown creature, waving back and forth and sometimes snatching a floating body that had grabbed her curiosity.

"I was… I was wondering what kind of creature it is."

"A big one. Why?"

Aneele paused for a moment.

"I like seafood."

"Then, my friend, as soon as you are able to eat once more we will organize a great hunt on the creature. It shall be a fine main course for our victory feast."

Aneele smiled and nodded.


	9. Chapter 9

"Chocolate."

"Cho-co-lot!"

"Eldritch."

"El-der-itch!"

"Gah, dealing with the Genasi is so troublesome. Especially where royalty is concerned." Safiya said, leaning tiredly against the wooden rail next to Aneele who was currently sitting at the edge of the walkway, holding Kaji in her lap.

"Explosion!" Aneele continued with her word game, paying no attention to Safiya's plight.

"Ex-pull-ocean!"

"Thaumaturgy."

"Thom…uh… Thom-terr…" This time Kaji stumbled over his tongue.

"Kaji will ponder that word all day long unless I stop him… Kaji, let's go - we'll do words later," Safiya grew irate watching the elf pick on Kaji by making him say big words and straightened herself, motioning for her familiar to follow her. The little homunculus was still trying to say 'Thaumaturgy'.

"Thimergy… Thimble…" Kaji looked up at the wizardess and grumbled, "Yes Mistress…"

"I'll see if I can persuade that pompous prince to cooperate and leave." With that, the wizardess and her familiar were gone, and Aneele was left once more to her own devices. The rest of her group didn't trust her to deal with any of the petitioners as far as scaring them shitless or eating them, and they didn't want either of that to happen. Regardless of reason she found it to be rather unfair.

Okku was scaring some spirits, Gann avoided the other hagspawns like the plague, so much he was even willing to take on the Illithid, and Kaelyn was probably smiting some undead somewhere. And that was only outside the building. Who knew of which creatures the line consisted within.

And Aneele was left to wait. The part of her mind still rational wondered why they hadn't chained her to a pole like a dog. Then they wouldn't have to worry about her wandering off in an unknown direction.

On the far side of the wooden walkway someone emerged from the main building where the Coven resided, and the crowd did well when it opened before her. She had certain characteristics pointing out exactly what she was. A half-fiend.

With large, black, bull shaped horns, and wings curled about her shoulders, she strutted between many strange creatures as though she owned everyone present, her long lion-like tail swishing behind her like a whip.

Aneele, who was now the only one not doing something to clear the line, only looked up when the half-fiend was upon her. And although one was blind entirely, and the other had one good eye remaining, they still managed to stare at each other in silence.

Finally the half-fiend extended her arm and pulled Aneele to her feet.

"I didn't expect to see you here," she said with a half smile.

"Likewise."

The tall half-fiend looked the small elf up and down.

"You're cursed now, I take it."

"Appears so," was Aneele's short answer.

"Not exactly talkative, are you," her voice was quiet but the elf's face remained vacant. "By the way, I have some news regarding your former comrades. If you're interested."

Aneele was silent thinking her nonexistent emotions over.

"No. I don't think I am."

"Suit yourself then. Here," Uni'el said, tossing something small and shiny to her. Aneele caught it deftly and saw it was in fact a small key.

"A back door?"

"Of sorts."

"I see." The elven girl was quiet for a moment. "Give my regards to Khai."

"Do you mean any of them?"

"No."

"Good. He'll be doubly pleased then." She nodded grinning widely and turned her back to the spirit-eater. "I'll see you on some other day little killer," the half-fiend said, waving as she disappeared down the road.

Aneele looked thoughtful, but only for a short while. There was pressing business to be dealt with. Her companions were quite stunned, wide-eyed and some (mostly blue) were even agape when she said:

"We're in."

And all she had to do for that was sit around and do nothing. Oh, and know the right people.

* - * - *

_Sleep… Sleeeep… Sleeeeeep! Sleeeeeeeep!_

Enemies they expected, being in the midst of ravenous hags - a maddening screeching voice that threatened their very sanity however, they did not. Okku particularly complained the loudest with his sensitive hearing.

"When can we find the damnable witch so I can properly silence her?!" He roared shaking his massive head.

"As soon as we find a way to open the door that separates you from her throat," Safiya said, knockings on the unbudging door. "You can say what you want about the ancient Imaskari but they certainly knew how to build for centuries."

"It'll last shorter than that," Aneele said cryptically.

"Nothing lasts forever but this does not give us any clue on how to open this door," Kaelyn said in her calm voice.

"That should be simple enough," Gann said evenly. "We look around. Isn't that how it usually goes? The heroes battle through the maze of angry beasts, seeking the mysterious mechanism to unlock all the secrets."

The others, Aneele included, looked at him as though the constant screeching made him finally lose it.

"You've been spending too much time with Magda again, didn’t you?" Safiya fixed him levelly with a gaze practiced for years on rowdy students. Gann looked as uncomfortable as though he was one himself.

"Do not shoot down the messenger when his words hold a great deal of truth."

"In Thay a great deal of messengers would consider themselves lucky to be shot down," Safiya spoke hauntingly.

"As opposed to what," Gann challenged.

"Becoming research subjects. And we Red Wizards have a great deal of things to research, I assure you. We are curious people."

Gann paled, swallowed and finally looked away only to behold the sight of Aneele grinning.

"What are you laughing at?"

As an answer Aneele shrugged and disappeared into the dark, and the haunting voice followed them throughout Skien.

_No dreams, no nightmares! Ah ha ha ha ha!_

"Where do you think you're going?" Safiya asked when she spotted Aneele walking up the stairs and away from the group.

"To look ar-" she raised her hand just a bit before a loud 'NO' echoed through the maze. Kaelyn and Okku, along with a slightly stunned Aneele looked at the breathless and unnerved dreamwalker and Red Wizard.

"Just stay in sight," Safiya said, pulling the girl back. Aneele cocked her head, slightly amused, but didn't say anything.

_When they come, kill each one. When they die, stack 'em high. When I'm through, eat them too._

"Isn't that the half-drow dreamwalker who disappeared from Mulsantir?" Safiya asked, looking at the woman's face up-close.

"Yes. I can feel it from here," Gann's eyes were slightly glazed. "I can feel her dreams from here even as they are trapped."

"Why would the hags make her suffer so?" Kaelyn asked, gently placing her palm across the Sleeper's eyes. She could feel traces of nightmares she was forced to endure, and the suffering they caused.

"The Sleeping Coven does not suffer competition. They rule dreams and any strong dreamer is a potential threat," the hagspawn explained quietly.

"How did you evade them then?"

He shrugged.

"The spirits both guided and guarded me until I learned how to hide from their eyes on my own."

"I cannot wake her from this nightmare," Kaelyn said stepping back.

"No one will until the hags die."

"And then?"

"She'll probably be able to return home."

Aneele nodded then turned around.

"We need to find that door mechanism."

_Bite off the bone, suck the marrow! Bite off the bone, suck the marrow!_

Heads rolled as mad denizens of this hell kept on attacking them. Noting unusual on its own but it was happening more and more often as of late. Aneele's care for life was dropping at a great speed.

"Do you think that she is going madder by the minute?"

"The _Hunger_ is eating her inside-out. It is merely a question of time before she turns on us as well."

"And after that dies."

Gann, for some reason, didn't exactly want to see that come to pass. He did not fancy the idea of being indentified with a roasted chicken.

_Where've you gone, my son, my son? Gone to rot in the sun, the sun? Please come back, my son, my son... Kill them all, one by one by one!_

If it were her stomach she was filling, with every meal she would very well burp and rub her tummy. But the spirit-curse left behind only the temporary feeling of fullness. When she approached the group she noticed that not everyone was in as good a mood as she was.

Safiya looked thoroughly irritated, and if she had had any hair Aneele had no doubt it would be unruly. Gann, who had hair, was very close to it. When they saw her approach, the wizardess instantly jumped on her.

"Where were you?!"

"To feed," Aneele blinked at Safiya's furious expression.

"Why not tell us then? Why did you run off, after we specifically told you to stay in sight?!"

"I was in sight. I could see you the entire time."

There was a momentary moment of silence after which Safiya exploded.

"Bloody elves!"

_Oh my love, my love. Your flesh stuck in my teeth, my love! You were too salty, too salty, my love. When I belch... I still smell your sweet perfume. My love..._

Kaji settled on Aneele's shoulder, his new favorite place.

"So… you're a spirit-eater, right? What do spirits taste like?"

"Sweet - like candy."

"Mmmmm… I want to be a spirit-eater too!"

"You and every other power-hungry madman in this world."

_Eyes shut, eyes not, I'm not, awake, asleep, asleep, a dream, a dream, a dream..._

"No sleep, sleeping, dream, dreaming! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"

The voice was unbearably loud now. As they peered through the newly accessible door they saw the hag strut around the room, cackling madly.

"That voice it's… haunting… insane…" Kaelyn whispered covering her ears and a shiver ran through her. Beside her Safiya looked scientifically fascinated, and Okku was just plain angry. Gann, on the other hand, looked very much confused.

"There is something about her… beneath the mask she is wearing is a face I feel I have seen many times before, but…" He said in a voice as if trying to puzzle something out.

The hag spotted them and approached with quick agile steps, something one wouldn't expect from a starved, mad creature like her, all the while looking insanely pleased. But even mad creatures could be dexterous enough when they are hungry and the food has been served. Aneele should know that. She was experienced in both the matters of hunger and madness respectively.

"Ah, another lucky one - lucky to know sleep - to know dreams. My gift to you, eternal slumber… yes, and you might dream too, you might!"

With a quick wrist and shoulder movement Aneele rammed first the dull side of her scythe and then brought the blade around to the neck of the creature. The hag blocked it deftly using her forearm, though some damage she had sustained with the sound of bone cracking, and jumped, backing away from the scythe wielding elf.

Aneele cocked her head, letting her eldritch energy slowly roll off her.

"You offer me dreams hag but I need more substance than that."

Crawling on the wet and slippery dungeon floor Gulk'aush raised her hand in signal of defeat and surrender.

"Enough! This blood of mine you've spilt has loosened insanity's grip on me for now." Weak and wounded some of her sanity returned to her. But the question was whether Aneele had retained all of hers.

"I do not wish to die, though it would bring an end to the punishment I've endured for my crimes, my _crimes_ ," she let out a weak laugh but she spoke in earnest. Dragging her scythe Aneele moved towards the fallen hag, the tip of the blade creating sparks and leaving shallow scratches on the floor.

"I don't care. It is time to finish this."

"If you must, then end my torment! But first, but first, a request… Find my son if he yet lives. Find him and tell him of his mother." Despite the rasping quality her voice held tenderness Aneele had heard other mothers' held. "My son… Gannayev."

Gann was struck with realization and he all but shoved the spirit-eater out of his way to look at the fallen hag.

"You. You are my _mother_."

Aneele looked from hag to Gann and back to hag once again. Then she shrugged and walked away from the two. Emotionless creature or not, family scenes still could make her feel queasy.

She looked up, hurt filling her eyes before she climbed back to her feet.

"So… my son has returned, and he has brought violence against me. Will you murder your mother? Is this the homecoming you have sought?"

"You abandoned me, cast me to the wilds of Rashemen!" Even now Gann's rage was cold and he did not raise his voice. On the other side of the room Kaelyn moved around to the wounded Safiya who was still on the dungeon's floor. Limping lightly, Safiya leaned on Kaelyn as she guided her out of the room, Okku following suit. The hag may have been an enemy, but this was still Gann's family matter.

Aneele walked out last.

"Is the hagspawn still in there?" Safiya winced when Kaelyn's healing magic hit a particularly sore spot. Aneele shrugged. "I hope he knows what he's doing. You too, since you left him there alone."

"He can take care of himself," Aneele said taking a seat on the nearby stairs. These were, remarkably, dry.

"What do you think they're talking about?"

"Humph, none of our business that's for sure," the bear god sniffed his bloody forepaw. "Mad witch."

"Okku's right. It is a family matter," Aneele said, and with that they settled to wait.

Sometime later Gann appeared with a grim look on his face and blood dripping from his clenched fist. He didn't say a word when he walked past the waiting group of friends but continued straight to the door leading up and out of Skien.

"I take it he is not going to tell us what happened."

"Why should he?"

"Your disinterest in others is strangely refreshing yet profoundly disturbing." Predictably Aneele shrugged, and Safiya sighed. "You are impossible to deal with sometimes."


	10. Chapter 10

"You didn't have to come along, you know."

"Not come," he scoffed, "and miss all the excitement spawned in your footprints? Surly you joke."

"I mean it."

"As do I. Not to mention you require my help to solve the maze of dreams behind which the hags hide."

Aneele frowned and eyed him levelly.

"I hardly needed your help to kill an illithid or win a game of 'demons and devils'."

"Ah, but you did need my help in creating unending amount of gold necessary for gambling."

Aneele looked away from him and returned her attention back to the long contract and Gann thought he might have heard something like 'I could've done it' and grinned.

Throughout their dreamwalking Gann was silent on the matter of his mother and Aneele avoided the subject as well. He for the most part silently followed her through dreams of an illithid, a gentlemen addicted on gambling and now a naïve student of magic.

Unravelling this dream had fallen onto her shoulders and she felt very much like a student with dignified professor Gannayev supervising her exam. Had she been her normal self, she would have thought that profoundly disturbing. And strange. And her face would have probably outshone a red apple. But she wasn't, and thus having him around was no different than having Kaji flying around her head.

Vaguely she wondered if removing the curse would return her to that stuttering child, always confused by grand events happening around her. She hopped not, because curse or not, it was mighty good to be able to reduce people to a quivering pulp just by looking at them. And Aneele had grown to be something of an expert on that.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked, just as she reached another paragraph which essentially said noting, but was there for the sake of making the contract look important and long.

"The red woman and Arman."

"About love, about gods?"

"I am stuck in a war between a brother and a lover. Why should I spend any thought on them? There it is," she tapped her finger on the single word in the contract. He leaned over the table to look at the sentence that, no matter that it was upside down, made no sense to him.

"How do you know?"

"I once knew a good lawyer."

"You have committed an atrocious murder I presume."

"I have massacred an entire village actually." Gann blinked, still bemused. He was, in fact joking. She in fact was not. He looked at her as she stood up and proceeded to walk to the devil.

"You and I need to have a long talk one day."

* - * - *

Hags were floating, suspended in an endless sleep, and they were still hidden behind the field of magic, still unreachable. Aneele tapped the force field several times, and it bounced back in concentric circles. Yet they had broken their hold on three dreamers trapped here. Was there anything else? She turned towards Gann with a question in her eye. He was the veteran dreamwalker here, after all.

"Any advice?"

"The field has weakened considerably, but I sense another dream nearby." He looked around walking between the sleeping hags and she didn't miss a few glances of hate he threw their sleeping forms. He stooped between two, one green and a deep purple one, and felt around the air until his hand sunk into nothingness.

"Here. This should be our last stop," he gestured for her to pass first. She cocked her head and almost sighed. Emotionless or not, the long tiring search for answers still did not hold any appeal for her.

The place they found themselves in was like no dream she had experienced until now. Color seemed drained from everything, her and Gann included, and a great wall surrounded the city of which only the rooftops could be seen. Yet there was something eerily familiar about that wall, a feeling she couldn't quite place.

She walked closer to it, her footsteps nearly inaudible in the dream world, and dragged the tips of her bony fingers over distorted faces. What was she doing here? What was she _supposed_ to do here?

"Ele'ena?"

Like crack of whip her head turned to the voice. No one had called her that for months now, not even Gann who knew of her birth name. It was a name from the past meant to stay in the past.

"…you …here?" raspy voice asked.

Her step sped up until she reached the source of it.

The man she knew as Bishop lay encased in a quivering greenish mold. His limbs twisted at odd angles, as if they were broken. His face - frozen in a grimace of pain - barely cleared the surface of the Wall, like the face of a drowning man, gasping for air.

His eyes met hers, and she realized that all the color had drained from his hair and his flesh, much like it did form hers. One of his eyes was completely white, and bulging. If she could Aneele would have laughed at the supposed justice she was witnessing.

She drew closer and leaned over his face with ease. In life he was so much taller than her. And he would always abuse that fact.

"Well, well, well. Quite a predicament you've gotten yourself into, _Bishop_."

He bristled, as much as a statue could.

"What, this Wall? I _knew_ where I was going when I died. Oblivion is a finer bedfellow than most… though on a cold night, with a roaring campfire, and no _words_ , I might allow for one or two exceptions."

"I bet you would," she whispered coldly, her boney hand skirting around the edge of his barley defined neck, itching to strangle him until even his soul stopped existing.

"Who is this one? He speaks as if he knows you," Gann spoke from behind her. At first he found the interaction curious and intriguing, but seeing the obviously murderous intent in her rising, he had decided to step in. He was also curious about this man from her past. She spoke little of it before, but now she grew silent as a grave.

Bishop's good eye turned towards the dreamwalker, knowing him instantly for what he was.

"Have you assembled a new circus of capering beasts? Does the pretty hagspawn sing for his supper, or does he dance as well?"

Aneele pulled her hand away and straightened up.

"Gann is a trusted friend. More so than you ever were."

"And I dance and sing quite well, I would add," his voice was pleasant and taunting at the same time. Aneele found it was nice not to be at the receiving end of his barbs.

"More trusted than the man who opened the gates of your keep to a horde of undead? You should treasure that compliment, hagspawn, it is clearly heartfelt."

At once, the Wall shuddered, convulsed. The twisted figures trapped within cried out as one as the entire wall _shifted_. Limbs shudder, bones crack, and the greenish mold expands, covering faces, eyes, and mouths. The smirk left Bishop's face, replaced, for one naked moment, by wide-eyed fear.

"Can you hear it? In the screams... underneath the screams? The reason you're here… they all know."

"Why so serious, Bishop? You're not scared, I hope?"

"No. I _made_ this bed of mold and rot. You never knew me… you thought you could read me, manipulate me, like the paladin or the devil-girl."

Did he really mean this, deep down...? Did he regret it but would never let her see that? In Aneele's, and before Ele'ena's image of Bishop such a thing was never possible. Bishop did not have the word 'regret' in his vocabulary.

"Ah... to forget and be forgotten - that's paradise. It's getting there that's the hard part, but I don't fight it, like these othe-" he didn't finish as suddenly three bony fingers were shoved roughly down his mold infested throat.

"Forget?" Her voice might as well have been made of ice. "Be forgotten?" Her fingers clenched inside and out his jaw. "That's an easy way out you don't deserve." The former Knight-Captain held on to his jaw and started to pull. At first the Wall resisted but the _Hunger_ latched onto the spirit rich bricks eating any possible resistance away.

"No, Bishop. You will return to that rotting corpse of yours and hate me, and this time I will give you a very good reason to." Little by little the Wall around him loosened letting his soul slide out, moss like matter retreating from his body. "You will hate me more than you hated Luskan, hate me more than you could ever hate Duncan, hate me more than you even hated yourself." She kept pulling him easily out of the Wall, it yielding under the onslaught of spirit-hunger, until he could see clearly into one sunken red eye. The eye that held all the traces of madness.

"You will hate me for this second chance I am giving you because Bishop, you owe me."

And in just a split of a moment before his soul turned into nothingness, with his eyes already starting to burn with hate, he lashed out at her. Yet the spirit hunger pushed him, through dreams, back into material world to where his body lay.

The voices in the Wall rose like one, each of them longing for a release, an escape from the suffering. But Aneele wasn't Akatchi and the release of souls interested her little. Yet here she had come to understand something. A secret was revealed to her.

Through it all Gann didn't speak or interfere. Not even now. Finally she broke the silence amidst the moaning of the Wall

"You look shocked," she said facing the structure.

"Admittedly, yes."

"You didn't expect something like that coming from me."

"No, not to that extent," he was silent for a moment. "He was the one to scar your face so?"

Aneele touched the eye patch where the skin was stripped from her bones and her eye gone.

"Yes, he was the one. An arrow coated in acid."

"I know you well enough to say it had nothing to do with misplaced vanity," his voice was quiet but firm and certain.

"You don't know me that well Gann. I am cursed, broken, and mad. _I_ don't know who I am anymore." She looked at the now empty spot in the Wall. It will soon be filled by someone else's soul. "You know, I didn't hate him really."

"A strange thing to say when you inflict more torment on him?"

She leaned on the Wall and her fingers dug into the moss painfully. With her left one she felt something and instinctively grabbed onto it.

"Because he frightened me. Because he was the bogeyman I couldn't stand up to. I was young, clueless and thrown into a whirlwind of events with expectations far beyond my capabilities, and I did not know how to dodge or foresee trouble on the horizon. I was no material for a Captain or a Knight. And they made me both. And he was there, with a knife always ready for my back. He hated Duncan so much that his hate boiled over to me for no other reason but being convenient."

Her shoulders sagged and she turned towards him, an oddly tired expression on her face.

"I wasn't born scarred, starved, soulless and mad! There are situations that can either make you or break you to pieces. A trial that can either force you to grow up or make you crawl in the corner. The war against the King of Shadows was one such event. Three times a guess where I ended up."

"You survived," he pointed out. "Sometimes that is what counts most."

Aneele snorted.

"Even if I turned into a mad spirit-eating monster?"

"Especially when you turn into a mad spirit-eating monster."

Again she snorted.

"That's easy for you to say. You have faced your demons."

"Faced, yes. Killed them, not yet." He looked around sensing the air, "And perhaps we too should go and face those demons before the ones from the Abyss show their ugly snouts here."

* - * - *

_: Speak :_

A change had come over the Chamber of Dreamers. The hideous forms of the Coven were solid now, and whispers filled the room… …hundreds of whispers, resolving themselves slowly into a single voice, which prickled like a swarm of ants inside her skull.

Even before Aneele could say anything Gann stepped forward, confronting the hags who were responsible for his parents' torment.

"You are the Slumbering Coven, the ones who have slept beneath Rashemen."

_: Yes :_

"The slayers of my father, the warden of my mother, and the ones who punished her never to sleep, never to dream."

_: Yes :_

"Why? She did not attack you, she did n-"

_: She broke our **law** , spawn :_

_: The one you travel with - she is the product of such broken laws, as are you. Transgressions must be punished, or they are repeated :_

"I agree - and that is why we are here to punish you."

_: No, not unless you want this place to unravel around you, to see all dreams, all the chambers of this city flooded and gone :_

_: To do so would kill you as well, and much farther do we think you have to travel :_

Aneele shrugged but did not look at him.

"My father - what did you do to him?"

_: Dead and gone, by our law :_

_: As your mother gave in to her appetites, so was she forced to devour her own mate... in the manner of all hags, piece by piece, leaving just enough alive to scream :_

"By your law, you say. Then all I wish is that the same justice be brought upon you - and that you feel its selfsame mercy."

Aneele's face looked left and right impassively.

"Nine hags."

_: By weaving together the strands of our dreams. The longer we sleep, the stronger our web. And we **take** dreams from other minds, adding them to our own :_

_: From the dreams of mortals, we salvage much... visions and hopes and memories. We take these things and gather them here, before mortal minds can **forget** them :_

"You walk unbidden through people's minds?"

_: Yes. Mortals are stupid, forgetful things. We walk in their dreams, and we **take** what they will only **lose** :_

"And those dreams?"

_: We showed you nothing. You showed us, and we drank deep… such was the price of your passage, and of the words we speak to you now :_

"Then those dreams… came from _my_ mind?"

_: From its deepest places, yes… where dreams mingle with hidden and forgotten things :_

_: You are a tempest of dreams, a whirling storm, devouring dreams and dreamers alike. They swirl around you like leaves - tearing, shifting, blending one into another. It is **maddening** :_

_: We saw you reach out to devour the bear god... and sensed in your hunger the death of all dreams. When such as you walks the land, all that we try to preserve is **lost** :_

Aneele dismissed that with a wave of her hand. Such things were in the past and were not worthy of wasting through now.

"Two women came before you, not long ago. You gave them advice - something to do with me."

_: Yes. The white twin, and the red :_

_: The white twin was Lienna. The red twin was Nefris :_

"Nefris? The mother of Safiya?" Gann looked at Aneele in amazement. Disgust poured in both their minds.

_: The pretty one… her dreams are scattered, **nauseating** to look upon. She knows not what she is :_

_: But yes. The one she calls "Mother" beseeched our advice and offered her dreams for trade :_

"And what did they want from me?"

_: Nothing **from** you. They sought to end your affliction… to spare you from your suffering :_

The whispers seemed to draw back from her mind, separating themselves into many different voices - for a few moments, they echoed back and forth across the chamber, as if conspiring amongst themselves. Then, abruptly, they resolved again into one.

_: We are creatures of dreams, not of words. Telling is **cumbersome**. We will **show** you what you wish to know :_

Out of thin air stepped two women, one garbed in white, the other in red. Aneele realized at once that she was seeing a dream, a memory… something that occurred here in the past. And a spark of curiosity appeared in her sunken eye. Finally she would get some answers.

"See us, hags of the Coven, and know us for what we are." Confidently, the red woman announced her presence to a powerful coven of night hags as if she was no less in power before them.

"We beseech your wisdom and bear gifts of dreams to trade… dreams of a sort even you have never seen." Both flustered and nervous her white twin held no such confidence.

_: We have heard tales of you in the dreams of the living, and reflected in the dying minds of those who perished in our sanctum :_

_: Your dreams are a treasure, unique in our hoard... like worlds seen through different facets of the same ancient stone :_

_: Your question resounds across the **infinity** of your dreams... but in this place, you must ask it aloud. Speak :_

"We… we would know how to end the affliction… the curse that the Rashemi call the 'spirit-eater.' We have searched so long, sisters of the Coven, we-" But the red twin cut off her sister, demanding the answers more forcefully, as it was befit of the Red Wizard.

"Tell us how to end the hunger. How can the eater of souls be granted peace?"

Even in the dream, the whispering of the hags seemed to pause, growing quiet for a long moment, as if in reverence… or uncertainty. Then…

_: That affliction is a punishment, meted out by one who once reigned as God of the Dead. He alone knows its beginnings, and he alone might bring about its end :_

"You speak of Myrkul. But… but he is dead."

"We seek an answer, not a riddle. That God of the Dead has passed beyond thought or dream. He has been slain and his throne usurped - his knowledge is _lost_."

_: Not lost. Myrkul is a corpse, but his thoughts and dreams remain... marooned now inside the rotting hulk of his mind. He dreams endlessly of old enemies come to grief, and ancient slights avenged… :_

_: As long as he is remembered and feared by mortals - even if they are pitiful and few - his dreaming will persist, and his mind shall endure :_

"Then we must speak… to a dead god?" The white twin looked discouraged with yet another seemingly-insurmountable obstacle placed in their path. But the red twin's quiet and resolute voice showed that Nefris knew better.

"It can be done."

"That is all we would know, sisters of the Coven. Thank you…" As they turned to leave, the images of Nefris and Lienna started to fade, and they vanished.

"Then this curse… is the result of one of your Gods? How many Gods of the Dead do your people have?" Gann was first to speak after a moment of silence. He looked at his companion with confusing and frustration. Predictably, Aneele just shrugged.

_: "Your" people? The Gods of the Dead watch **you** , Gann-of-Dreams. All their laws, all their punishments, will fall on you, as well :_

_: And if you do not believe in them, then one of their harshest laws shall be inflicted upon you - to lie within the Wall of the Faithless until you dissolve as a fading dream :_

_: So keep your defiance, if you must, but it will not last when death comes for you, dream-thing :_

"Did the two speak to the dead god?"

_: That is a question we cannot answer. The red twin has returned to Thay - to her Academy - a horror of endless voids and fractured souls. We are blind to all that passes there :_

_: The white twin - Lienna - kept portals in her secret room, in the **shadow** of her theater. One of them is open only to those who **know** where it leads :_

_: Beg passage from her Keeper of Doors, and he will open the way. Beyond that portal lies the Academy... and your **answers** :_

_: But we care **not** what you do, spirit-eater… we have spoken **enough**. You have troubled our dream too long :_

"Very well," Aneele nodded and Gann hissed by her.

"I say we bring their dreaming to an end. Show them the pain of the waking world." Perhaps it was the sheer amount venom in his voice that made the hags pause and raise their voices in defiance.

_: If you end our dream, all that it contains is lost. Imagine… the dreams of a thousand, thousand souls, the knowledge of wizards and kings centuries dead, the hopes and loves of men and women and beasts… all contained within our unending dream :_

_: Such a trove as has never been assembled, here or anywhere across the planes… this you would destroy, for your own selfish whim :_

Aneele cocked her head.

"Yes, that sounds about right."

"So be it. My spirits are ready to fight with us - to their second deaths, if need be.

There was outrage in the air, coming from all the nine hags.

_: You have **not** the power, nor the will! Stupid, arrogant thing… how many hundreds have tried to usurp our place, but we **took** their power, and **absorbed** their dreams :_

"This one does not stand alone, but with me. I am no novice to the unraveling of the dreams and ambitions of others - together, you will not find us easy prey." He turned to her.

"Allow me to help you. I can unravel their dreams faster than they could stop us," Gann said placing a hand on her shoulder. Aneele leaned on her scythe and looked at him for a moment. There was something unusual in her eye. She wasn't looking through him or somewhere behind his eyes. No, she was looking just at him.

She then reattached her weapon on her back belt and placed both of her hands on top of his head. He closed his eyes waiting for her mind to merge with his but it was the opposite that happened. Her mind distanced and Gann felt being pushed away, pushed out of the dreamscape.

"No!" he exclaimed trying to fight back the fragmenting dream. Aneele shook her head. "I can help you."

"You can get yourself killed," she said evenly even as the sound of drums filled the dreamscape around her. Gann knew what this meant. With one last look up he saw the dream rearrange behind her until the caged _Hunger_ appeared, suspended on chains of her iron will.

"No! I-" He tried to protest but there was no point. With the _Hunger_ waiting in the recess of her mind she easily broke his hold on the dream and pushed him back out into the waking world as the dream collapsed around him.

_: You have sent the pretty hagspawn away. One can only wonder why :_

_: But without the dreamwalkers help you have no chance in defeating us :_

Aneele looked at them unfazed.

"There are only so many hags… we can eat at the same time." The _presence_ behind her stirred, as she concentrated upon it… willing the hunger to come forth and be free. It rose like a dark, shapeless thing, always ravenous, _groping_ blindly for food… Even if they didn't move Aneele could sense the hags back away.

"But there were nine tasty hags before us…" She unleashed spirit hunger upon the minds of the hags.

As the hunger broke off the chains and filled her up, she could _sense_ the powerful minds of the hags… they were gorged with memories and dreams, swollen like bloated worms. The _Hunger_ surged forth…

The hags tried to maintain their grip upon sleep - upon the dream - but they could not, without risking their very souls. But neither could they wake as the Faceless Man surged between them cutting one down with his great scythe and devouring another. Screaming in fury, they were devoured, one by one, and their precious dream dissolved into a million whirling threads...

Aneele did not move from her spot, looking vacantly over the massacre of souls and lost dreams she helped happen.

* - * - *

"What happened?!" He heard the voices of his companions but they sounded distant. He remembered quickly the shattered dream and looked around. He found he was lying on the ground supported by Okku. Had he fainted completely?

"I'll ask again, what in the hells happened?!" Safiya raised her voice as she all but shook the hagspawn back to his senses. He freed himself of her hands to look at where the girl stood but it was the sight above that occupied everyone's attention.

Before them the hags twisted painfully and screeched as if something was tearing them up, yet there was no visible force. Aneele still stood calmly before them, hands in pockets and scythe strapped to her back just as she did when she and Gann first entered their collective dream.

"Aneele! By the spirits-!"

"It had started not long after you collapsed," Kaelyn said quietly. "We thought that a dream might have gone awry."

"I have not seen anything like this before," Okku's voice was a low rumble. Even if he was a mighty spirit, he too was very much afraid. "What is she doing to them?"

"Eating them," Gann whispered and the others looked at him in shock. Most noticeably Kaelyn and Okku, the bear god both worried and disappointed at her giving in into her _Hunger_. "Form the dreamworld, she is picking up their souls like ripe fruit."

As he spoke the hags one by one collapsed on the floor, some still twitching and others still with glassy eyes. And among the carnage the spirit-eater slid on the floor, crossed her legs and sighed contentedly, nine pulsing essences of the Coven laid out before her.

That time only Safiya approached her.


	11. Chapter 11

For those who slept, this night proved to be a blessing. There was no maze to be solved, except for ones in their heads, and no mad hags were after them. For those that didn't, this night proved to be a distraction.

Aneele was left to her own devices in the confines of her room, as going out had become a big no-no, and explored the powers of Hag's Eye. Just by holding it in her hand she could feel the pull of dreams around her. If she let go would she be able to wander as easily as Gann did?

Sitting on a chair she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her tights and her own took a distant look as the Hag's Eye swirled. Relaxing her mind in no time she found herself in the space between dreams.

She walked in between them touching, some with the tips of her fingers. There were as many different ones as there were people dreaming them and now she could understand why Gann would frolic through them with such enthusiasm. Or turn some into nightmares.

Not surprisingly she happened upon the hagspawn somewhere along the dreamway. He stood in front of a dream surrounded in cocoon-like fog, looking very much thoughtful with a frown on his face.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, not turning to look at her, and his voice was not gentle either. "Do you not know it's rude to enter people's dreams uncalled?"

"You do it," she replied standing up next to him.

"Yes, but I have enough charm to be allowed. Not to mention years of experience," the words might have been meant jokingly but there was no such sentiment in his voice. Aneele summarized that he was still upset about what happened with the Coven. Thus, he was upset with her.

"I had never thought that her powers would be this great if raw. I never imagined she had it at all," he continued, more to himself than to explain anything to her.

"Not surprising," Aneele said calmly gazing over the solid wall.

"Are you mocking me?" He shot a glare at her and there was a harsh edge in his voice.

"I am dreaming am I not?" she said standing up. "Is this Anya's dream?"

"Yes. I had been looking for it since we left the Wells of Lurue," Gann said a mixture of pain, worry but above all, annoyance written on his face. "She had built a wall around herself like an expert dreamer."

"Perhaps helping your dream lady in distress would be prudent," she made it sound like a suggestion, but she was already pushing past the borders of the girl's dream.

"She is not my dream lady," Gann snapped angrily at Aneele's disappearing back. He bristled, sighed and decided to follow her. Trust someone infected with never-ending hunger to claw her way through any obstacle.

The inside of a dream cocoon was at best described as… dreamy. As dreamy as only a young maiden in love could dream it up. It was far too shiny, and blurry, and had more gently colored flowers than any dream should be allowed to have.

Gann visibly shuddered. Aneele too, decided she did not feel comfortable here.

"I… was not this bad, was I?" Aneele asked, surprising even herself, though she had long since replaced the image of sunny West Harbor with the dark and solemn Vault.

"No, yours was not this bad. But only by a margin," he replied focusing on making the path ahead of him. Everything he'd touch, a flower, a tree, even a stray animal, would unravel under his fingers. He was not being gentle by far.

"Oh, Sir Gannayev."

A Giggling, sighing voice made them both stop in their tracks. They glanced at each other, both feeling uncomfortable – one more than the other – and hurried to hide behind the trees. From there they saw who it was that caught Anya's attention so.

"Yes, my dearest Anya?" He sounded strong, attentive, and very much _unlike_ the normal Gann Aneele knew. How far did he go in pretending to get what he wanted?

"Nothing. I simply love saying your name," she sighed, smiling happily and he smiled kindly in return.

"And it pleases _my_ ears to hear it, my love."

It was the telltale image of two doves in love and next to Aneele Gann looked uneasy at best. In fact, he looked positively ill. Now, why did it bother him so? He said, no, bragged to her of his infamous conquests in maidens' dreams.

"I do believe it is the taste of bile that's rising in my throat. I may be ill, stand away," he said leaning with one hand heavily on the tree, which disappeared too under his currently volatile presence with a 'plop'. A sound that made two lovebirds jump from their nest on the ground.

"What? Who is there?" The girl asked alarmed.

"Stand back, my love, I shall protect you." The other Gann stepped forward defending her. The action that had the real Gann come out of the woods looking a lot like an angry bear.

Aneele stopped and rubbed her shin wondering how Gann would react if she were to compare him to Okku.

"Protect _her_?" His voice choked. "By the spirits, she's the cause of all this! And _you_ …" Gann appeared to be revolted by this, to him, sickly sweet dream. Apparently, there was no romantic in him. Well, the truth had to come out sooner or later.

"Gannayev? How can there be two of you?" Anya was surprised, and more than a little shocked.

"Do you know this half-blooded mongrel, my love?" The Faux Gann asked her with a slight jealousness. The Real Gann was indignant.

" _Mongrel_?! What does that make you? A half of a half?"

"Have a care with your words, villain, or I shall make you dine upon them!"

Much to her surprise Aneele, something like laughter bubbled inside of her. Before it burst out however she looked around.

"This is a dream?" She asked. It had the same substance as her early dreams only stronger and much more tightly bound. She herself did not have such ability and from what she could tell Anya's were quite similar to Gann's.

Anya, for one, was confused with her question. She was still trying to make sense of things and the presence of the Ganns before her.

"This is our home, where we are able to be alone without father seeing… I found this glade one night, while-"

Gann waved his hand dismissively. He had seen it all before.

"While you walked the borders of sleeping and waking, yes, yes, I know how this came about. My mistake was that I didn't realize that you possessed such power, Anya - an oversight, but I cannot be perfect in _all_ things." There was a quiet discreet cough behind him, somehow condescending on what he just said. He chose to ignore it. Fully. "Now this fantasy of yours must end - that Gann there, he is a fantasy you have conjured up, and he is becoming a wedge between you and the waking world, Anya." And then he added, gesturing at her creation. "He also has terrible fashion sense, and the nose is all wrong."

"I'd say she got it about right," Aneele said from behind him. Gann turned sharply at her.

"Are you trying to be funny?"

"Not really. I seem to be quiet frank these days." Gann narrowed his eyes dangerously at Aneele, and Anya narrowed her eyes, just as dangerously, at Gann. Aneele really wished she were able to laugh now.

"Then be quit," he all but growled, and returned his attention to the dreaming girl in front of him and the 'abomination' she had created.

"I do not know who you are, but you are not the Sir Gannayev I know," Anya yelled, and there was a growing sense of panic in her voice.

"I should hope not. You can't seem to get me right from the looks of it," Gann huffed and the false Gann drew a sword, sharp tip pointed at his other self. Never mind that the actual Gann did not know the first thing about swords.

"Perhaps a contest to see which Gann loves you more," Aneele suggested from the side. "One that does not involve pointy objects."

"A contest?" Her eyebrows rose slightly. She was intrigued. But then again, girls often were intrigued by young men who would fight for them. Or so Aneele remembered.

"A contest," the real Gann balked, glaring at the elf all the while. The other one was as enthusiastic as ever.

"I would welcome a chance to prove myself. Bring on your 'contest'. I am not afraid!"

"Then we will let 'Sir Gannayev' begin," Aneele continued ignoring Gann's furious yet silent, huffing and puffing.

Faux Gann turned to Anya, bent his knee and took her hand into his.

"I love you, Anya! I am only whole when you are around," he said in gentle tone and with the sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks, the girl looked like she had just reached heaven. Next to Aneele Gannayev did not look impressed.

"Revolting - and _so_ unimaginative."

Aneele leaned over to him still looking at the love-stricken pair.

"So, are you going to let a shadow of you win, then?" Taunting worked like a charm. Rub his ego the wrong way and he was sure to do anything to…

"What? Of course not! I have already won. I need not prove myself to a shadow, _or_ to you," he exclaimed and stomped over to the lovesick girl.

"Ah, Anya…" he started with a sigh of pain and longing, and Aneele's first thought was that Magda would kill to have him as an actor. "This glade around you is a poor home for a beauty such as yours - those clouds in the sky hide the sun's gaze from you, when _all_ should be allowed to look upon your beauty."

It was Faux Gann's turn to be indignant.

"I need share her with no one!"

Gann looked haughtily over at his false self.

"I would not fetter Anya's movements, I would allow all to gaze upon her - for even if they should, only I can appreciate her inner beauty."

"Oh!" If possible Anya's cheeks burned even redder and she even appeared somewhat breathless. She couldn't even look away from him.

"What? He tells lies! I love you! I am only whole when you are around," Faux Gann exclaimed almost in desperation as he could not come up with anything to rival Gann's years of lewd experience. Gannayev even shot him a coveted smirk filled with superiority and asserted victory.

He leaned over to Anya, softly resting his forehead against hers.

"Anya, I am whole at _all_ times - for you are with me always, no matter what distance separates us."

"Oh!" In an instant her eyes went from youthful happiness to mournful sadness. She had understood what happened. "Oh my…" She cupped Gann's face gently and looked him in the eyes before stepping back, "I've been such a fool for a Gann I've created out of nothingness. It's time for me to wake up now."

Abruptly the dream around them vanished.

They were standing in an empty place between dreams. Aneele could sense how many of those belonged to people of Mulsantir. She looked back to where the girl's dream had just been.

"You've never said anything like that to me," Aneele said with that always flat voice of hers.

"That is because you are insensitive, to my charm," that last part seemed to be added hastily. She remained very still for a moment and then shrugged and continued as if nothing was said.

"Anya seemed to like you very much."

"Just an infatuation," he dismissed it with a wave of his hand. His shoulders were still stiff.

"Isn't that what all those girls felt for you?"

"Perhaps."

"And perhaps Anya's infatuation runs deeper precisely because she is a dreamwalker."

"What is your point?" He asked finally tiredness and frustration both seeping out of his being.

"What is it that you want Gann?" She asked seriously and he was momentarily stumped. He sighed and rubbed his face tiredly.

"Gulk'aush is gone… and I feel _loss_. All that _time_ , _wasted_ in judging her for something she had not done," He reflected, still saddened and confused. "She did the exact opposite of what I had believed all my life, _felt_ the exact opposite." His voice grew quieter, "She loved me. And loved my father."

"I believe she did, yes."

"How much of such dreams and hopes are left unsaid between others? And how many could be saved - or healed - by such knowledge?" His face took on a determined look. "If I am ever to love, I will speak of it. This is my promise, the first vow I have ever made. And if I am loved in return, then it shall only be the first vow of many."

Aneele raised an eyebrow. A vow? That seemed out of place for him.

"You'll make some girl very happy. One who can put up with your bouts of egoism without plotting your demise," she observed looking at him evenly. Gann snorted.

"I doubt I am as bad as you say, otherwise you wouldn't have put up with me," and when the spirit-eater puts up with your company you must be doing something right.

"I have unlimited patience," she pointed out. And it was true – except when she was hungry. "Anya is a dreamwalker now, a powerful one. Maybe you should spend some time with her," Gann's eyes went wide at her words. "before she locks herself in a nightmare. Or someone else."

"And what of you? Shouldn't I, by your logic, tutor you as well then?"

"You did, and you did a fine job. But I do not have the level of talent that Anya possesses," she said turning her back to him. She wanted to 'wake up' now.

"You're dismissing me just like that," he asked surprised but there was a flicker in his voice, something Aneele could identify as hurt.

"No, I just say that the girl needs guidance." He remained silent. "That was a compliment Gann."

"You need practice some more in giving them then," he tried to sound dismissive again but the tension in him remained. Aneele wondered if she had insulted him in some way.

"Gann, was it something I said?"

"No. Nothing you've said," he said tightly and with that he disappeared from dreamscape and Aneele too followed, returning to her own body where she was still playing with hags' essences in one hand and holding the Hag's Eye in the other. Even before she opened her eyes she could hear heavy footsteps across wooden floor walking away. A Few moments later Safiya joined her in Lienna's room.

"Why is Gann sulking?" Safiya asked, tilting her head at the front door of the theatre through which Gann had just walked out. Aneele stood up and walked past the wizardess, fingering several essences in her fingers.

"He looked himself in the mirror and didn't like what he saw."

"That must have been a painful eye-opener," Safiya arched an eyebrow.

"Mmm-hm."

Safiya followed her to the mask bench where the spirit-eater took her seat, placed the Hag's Eye next to her many tools and started to work on shaping. She'd miss this. The curse made it so much easier to mold and create things. And now she had more essences and materials than she had ideas for items she'd like to create. Although, since they were heading for Thay next…

"Gann seems to like you," Safiya said suddenly. Aneele picked some air and water essences. A ring or a bracelet? Though Kaelyn's shield does need some fixing. Later though. Now she had to see what she wanted to do with the Coven essences.

"It's not mutual," she said molding two glowing essences into one.

"Oh." Well, there was a direct answer. But nothing else could be expected form a spirit-eater. "Well, you best break it down to him gently. And soon, before he…"

"You misunderstood me. I don't like any of you." She took a mold in a shape of a mask and spread the combined essence over it, starting to make the general shape of the eyes, eyebrows, nose…

Above her Safiya's mouth were agape in an instant.

"But we-" Interrupting her, Aneele held up to Safiya's face the basic shape of the new mask she was making.

"I cannot feel, therefore I cannot like," she clarified as she continued to work. "Such is the nature of the curse."

"What about all the cuddling with Okku?" Safiya asked suspiciously.

"I imitate. I know I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off him before and so I recreate that from my memory. There is no emotion in any of my actions, only reason and hunger." The mask was turning out to be green. Should she use paint to cover it or another lesser essence? On the other hand, she didn't know if there will be some volatile reactions if she were to do that.

"You almost sound like a Thayan," The wizardess sighed, but after that sh grinned.

"Are they too cursed to be soulless?"

"No, but I have developed a theory that the majority of them is born without one." She looked at the bench and the walls that were covered in many different masks. Aneele had grown to like making them and had made many for Magda's performances during her time of solitude. And some of them were quite powerful. "You've made many. Why don't you use some of them?"

Aneele ran a finger across her eye patch.

"I wasn't satisfied with them."

"Will you ever be?"

"What?"

"Satisfied."

"I doubt it."

"Sometimes it is so very difficult to discern you from an animated object," Safiya said picking up a book of recipes from the table. She could tell it was used often, with charred pages and cracks on the cover.

"It shouldn't be," Aneele splayed her hand across her chest where her great scar was. "I am already dead, I just haven't hit the ground yet." Safiya nearly dropped her book. Aneele continued shaping fine details into the mask. "With every soul I take I lose a bit of myself. I won't last much longer."

Safiya slammed the book back on the table, making tools jingle and essences roll around. Aneele looked back up.

"Then why do you persist in gorging when it ultimately does no good? You've taken nearly every soul in the Sunken City!"

"If I do not I will hit the ground sooner. I exist on borrowed time. But if I do not eat I grow weak and would really be no more than a corpse. And then I would lose any chance I have to remove this curse."

Safiya opened her mouth but then closed it again. Really, what could she say?

"Have you given any thought what you will do once the curse is lifted?" Changing the subject was always good. Aneele paused in her work.

"I wonder how I will live without it."

"I suppose you will continue as you once were," Safiya said what was obvious to her. Aneele looked at her questioningly.

"But what if I'm no longer the same?"

Safiya frowned.

"You don't mean to tell me that you wish to continue existing as you are?"

"I have no desire to die."

"That's good to know. You know, Okku is very upset by your actions at the coven," the wizardess continued quietly.

"I know," she placed the mask containing the coven essence on the side and took two other to work with. The masks would probably look the same.

"He understands your need to feed, he is a beast himself, but you gorging on them as you did…"

"It can't be helped now."

"Won't you talk with him?" Safiya asked trying to get her interested.

"Later," she said choosing some decorative feathers for the mask.

"Gann isn't much further off in terms of being angry."

"Mmm-hm."

"And Kaelyn is starting to look at you questioningly."

"…"

"You really do have a knack for turning your allies against you."

"No, I never knew how to keep them in the first place. Are you going to turn against me as well?"

"You haven't wronged me. Yet."

"There's time." She continued to work in silence for a moment then asked quite suddenly, "What is Thay like?" Safiya cracked a smile.

"Do you want my thoughts or those of a foreigner?"

"I am no Red Wizard." She'll need something to make masks differ from one another. Earth essesnce.

"True. You'll not like it then. But you might find the Academy itself fascinating. I imagine that Okku and Kaelyn might not appreciate its mystic charm though." At the sound of Kaelyn's name Aneele looked away. Safiya noticed this. "What is it?"

"I… am concerned about Kaelyn," Aneele said, not looking up from her work. "And the way she looks at me sometimes."

"You're yet to open the doors to the lower level of the Vault. Perhaps she is just impatient to go there," Safiya shrugged with an elegance of an all knowing teacher.

"It's not that. There's something else…" She put down her tools.

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't trust her anymore."

"What brought this on?"

But Aneele remained silent.

"Does her talk about the Wall bother you?"

"No, it means nothing to me. Does it bother you?"

"Why would you ask that?"

"Because you run away every time it's mentioned."

Safiya was silent, feeling oddly stung.

"I suppose that is true."

"You still don't want to talk about it?"

"I have… dreams - nightmares, really… of that wall," her voice stumbled as she tried to describe the nightmare. "There's a sensation of being… stretched. And an unending scream - one long, composite scream of men, women, children. I really… I don't know what to tell you other than, that it haunts me. I don't know exactly what it is, or why I dream about it or why _you_ saw it too. I'd rather just… not talk about it."

"This nightmare of you in the wall? How does it end?"

"Look, I told you… more than I've told anyone, I just… I'm done with this conversation."

Aneele nodded and went back to work.

Changing the subject masterfully yet again, Safiya took the Hag's Eye from the table where Aneele was working and looked at it, frowning. She looked down at her face, then back at the Eye. Quickly she grabbed the elf's chin, removed the eye patch and moved in a few rapid movements up, down, left and right, eyeing her demolished half of the face with a critical eye of the scientist.

"Can I borrow this," she asked, holding up the Eye. Aneele looked at her somewhat wide-eyed as she rearranged her eye patch.

"…Yes-" But before she could even finish, Safiya took off and excited.

"Excellent! You'll get it back!"

Aneele looked down at the two masks she had made and shrugged. She still had enough essences for another one.

Outside of Mulsantir everything was quiet. The spirits made no noise as they passed and many approached Okku who was resting in the fields.

"Have your wounds healed well, Okku?" Kaleyn asked the bear god.

"No wound is permanent anymore," he responded raising his large head, "besides what the spirit-eater may do."

"Yes, the curse is the only thing that can hurt your kind," the half-celestial whispered to herself.

"Is there something you wanted, priestess?" Okku eyed her with his yellow glowing eyes.

"The curse is consuming her," the priestess said simply.

"I noticed," he rumbled sadly.

"If she continues in this path she may never be able to free herself of it. She will die. And the curse will move on," she tried to sound calm as she passed on a warning, but Okku shook his head at her words, surprising her.

"She will live long enough to break it. I do not know what will happen after."

"How can you be so sure," Kaelyn asked, frustration finally bubbling to the surface. Okku stood up and started towards the city. He noticed that dreams were pleasant in the Veil Theatre, mayhaps because of all the stories told there.

"I know that because she is an animal and a wounded, cornered animal will do anything to survive." With that he left the angel standing alone in the starry night. Kaelyn did not know what to make of his answer, for the bear god's anger at the girl was obvious yet his trust in her remained unshaken.


	12. Chapter 12

"Welcome to Thay! Watch your step for bloodthirsty beasts and power-hungry wizards," Safiya said stepping forward from the portal into a dust covered road. It was a miracle her red robes, donned again now that she was back in her territory, remained shiny red colored despite the overall coating of dust. "I will warn you now, trust no one here and be prepared for hostilities," she looked over at the tall and building shaped in such a way it might have come out of mathematician's nightmare. "Especially if it is true and Armand had taken over."

"In other words, we have a number of highly experienced mages prone to treachery and magical experiments to deal with. I almost prefer giants from Ashenwood," Gann sighed leaning on his spear, which uncharacteristically cracked with unknown power, and instantly he jumped away. He looked at the weapon in his hand wide-eyed. There were number of enchantments on it that were not there yesterday.

"What have you done with my spear?!" He asked almost in panic holding it at arm's length away. And while he wasn't speaking directly to her only one person it the group could shape essences with such expertise that it scared the rest of them.

Aneele blinked.

"Upgraded it."

"And you could not ask me first if you could play with it?" He gestured at the now blue light flashing runes around the base of the metal head.

"I felt like being insensitive," she replied icily and time came to a halt. Gann stiffened but Aneele looked away to the narrow path ahead of them. "Any guards?" Safiya's attention quickly turned from wondering about the troublesome party dynamics and to the problem at hand.

"There are Gnoll guards here, and several Wyverns roosting at the top of the cliff, but I don't think either would let me pass peacefully anymore. It is likely my standing in the Academy had dropped significantly in my absence," Safiya said casually lining up the wands attached to her belt. Her mother was not popular with a good number of Masters and she, as her fervent supporter, is likely to be on their same deranged list of people they had to kill in bid for power. Or maybe because they disliked her as much.

"Their funeral," Aneele said unhinging her scythe from her belt and moving past her companions.

Returning her attention back to the happenings from only moment ago Safiya threw a questioning look at the dreamwalker who held on to his spear like it was made of various unfortunate hagspawn intestines, as he wouldn't put it past the elf girl. Her working bench was filled with more exotic materials, both dead and crawling, for crafting than an able wizard could say for himself.

"I wonder what happened to sour her mood again. The curse? Her behavior has been quite instable lately," Kaelyn leaned lightly on her newly enchanted axe and rubbed her chin.

"As if that is a hard thing to guess," Okku rumbled quietly before showing his immense teeth in one long yawn. He was never fond of squabbling immature children. Particularly when said children were in fact adults with even less reason than maturity. Dreams were calling him back even now and he waited longingly for the day the curse would be no more or he would stop dreaming forever.

"I truly have no idea priestess," Gann sniffed throwing a dirty look in the general direction the spirit-eater had walked away. Despite initial dislike, distrust and disinterest for his new weapon he still readied for the upcoming battles. "Perhaps that time of the Moon had rolled in again."

In the distance, but not too far away from their small group, piercing shrikes of the dieing and those in pain could be heard, keenly followed by the all too familiar sound of souls being forcefully extracted.

And later on, devoured.

It was sparkly and shiny and there was the smell of magic and mystery in the air. Naturally, this being a Thayan Academy there was also death and bodies littering the floor, but who counted that for she certainly didn't.

Aneele's eye opened wide and something akin to blush spread across her cheek. Everything was so shiny and mystical she couldn't resist looking around eagerly, even if she had no soul. But before she could even take a step further two arms anchored her where she stood, one under each of hers. She looked up to see Gann and Safiya holding her back, their expressions stern.

They did not look at her. In fact, they were looking in the unknown distance as they started to list the newest rulebook of the group, written most likely by them.

"You are not going to chase shiny magical sparks."

"You are not to open any doors to satisfy your curiosity with or without proper supervision."

"You are not to touch anything that might look interesting, unique or just sitting on the table with or without proper supervision."

"And you are absolutely to stay in the line of sight."

"Our line of sight," they finished in choirs.

Aneele closed her mouth.

Her companions truly held no sympathy for her plight.

She wanted to explore. This place with magic and glittering books compelled her to do so. And most of all, like a starved puppy the _Hunger_ kept reaching out towards the central room, where most delicious treats a spirit-eater could imagine were kept.

She leaned a bit in that direction, not even making a step yet when the collar of her coat was roughly yanked back. She looked up in slight bewilderment to see large hand holding onto the course material tightly, and further up to see that he wasn't even sparring her a glance. And if he did, from the corner of his eye, it would be the kind of look Aneele could compare to that of Daeghun.

Condescending. Accusing. As if he was making her bear the blame for things _she_ could no longer understand but apparently, _he_ did.

It riled her up, made the _Hunger_ bubble and boil inside, but at the same time made her remember how it felt being pressed under Daeghun's gaze. Small. Helpless. Incapable. It made her _feel_ all the more displaced.

She placed her hands in the pockets and stood still. The grip on her collar loosened but did not relent and once again Aneele distanced herself from everything, counting time from one meal, last one being just outside the building when an unfortunate Gnoll thought the watchtower was a distance enough away from a soul-snatching creature, to the next.

It was Safiya who interrupted the heavy atmosphere in her mind. She had paid no attention to conversation taking around her, though she did catch words like 'tattoo' and 'homunculi.' She really didn't need to know the correlation between the two.

"It seems that Arman did take over the Academy but he doesn't appear to be trying to consolidate his power." Safiya's expression held something between intense sorrow and murderous rage, all wrapped in her trademark calmness. "Everything my mother worked for is falling into disarray rapidly."

"Where should we go first then? The hags were not specific in terms of what we should keep our eyes open for."

"My mother's quarters. Any information regarding Myrkul and study in the spirit-eater inflection would like be found there, though I have little doubt that Arman and his brainless lot have already gone through it with a fine-tooth comb," on the surface, her face, she tried to keep a tight leash on her raging emotions. Then, as she remembered something, her eyes softened visibly and she managed a smile. "Unless she was feeling particularly paranoid and had all her records coded and dispersed around the school in for of tiny yet extremely deadly riddles."

"Of course she had done just that," Aneele spoke up for the first time since they've entered the building making others look at her questioningly. Leaning on her heels she tossed them a crooked, sideways glance that explained all. "She's a wizard after all."

Safiya was correct of course. Nefris' room looked like a small pack of air elementals had waltzed through. A small pack of drunk elder air elementals. The kind that tasted like cold cream on hot summer… Aneele stopped herself. Had she sunken that deep into the curse that she could compare the taste souls and spirits with her favorite food? Again, she shrugged. If it made things easier for her when devouring she couldn't care less.

Behind her Safiya was looking through her mother's notes and books, and she treated each with care. The Bear God and the hagspawn were waiting below, as Okku's great paws wouldn't be of much help where page turning was concerned. Kaelyn's attention, in the meantime, was fixed on the door in the very corner of the room.

"Where do these doors lead?" Kaelyn asked pointing at the tightly bolted door at the very corner of Nefris' quarters. Apart from four holes there was no other visible marking on them, not even a lock for the key. Unless the four holes were the lock and the key- keys, were spread across the school.

After glancing at the door Aneele almost felt like tsking. Mages. Everything had to be a riddle with them. One of the reasons she had, at that time, given up on trying to sneak around Sand's house. That elf was paranoid.

"I don't know," Safiya stood next to the priestess leaning on her staff thoughtfully. "My mother had them installed quite recently actually. I presumed they were a part of one of her numerous experiments so I didn't ask. Why?" Instead of answering, Aneele tossed them both the book she held and Safiya skimmed through it with an expert's eye.

"What does it say?" Kaelyn asked trying to decipher the curved symbols on pages but her knowledge of such matters was limited at best.

"So very much like her," she muttered after a moment. "I suppose it is good that we have somewhat of an expert in extracting souls among us."

"And I can tell you which are of fine taste. But don't let Okku know I've said that," Aneele's eye roamed the room until it ended on something that looked very much like a mummified husk. It looked like no creature she could recognize and gently probing it with the _Hunger_ she realized the Faceless Man had no interest in it. Any form of life was already squeezed from it, but it still held a feeling similar to that of unique essences she had collected. Another form of crafting material she could use perhaps?

"Safiya, what is this," the elf asked. Safiya looked over elf's shoulder.

"Husk of some great spirit I believe. We have performed many experiments here in connection to spirit and soul. One of many reasons why spirits of Rashemen stay clear of Thayan territory, and our Academy in particular."

Aneele cocked her head slightly before putting the husk into her bag of holding. It could be put to use.

From the quarters of the Head Mistress of the academy they moved on to exploring the rest of the edifice. The school looked vast to begin with but as it turned out, it was much bigger on the inside then first presumed.

From there they continued on, exploring the school, looking for clues as to where Nefris might have hidden the needed faulty souls. On the way there they've encountered several students eager to prove themselves to their friends by showing off their power and killing the roaming group. Bad choice in either way, with Aneele being around. They've even ran into skeletons in the closet – quite literally. Aneele was probably most impressed by a mysterious box. She didn't let it out of her hands during the entire search, not even to look where she was going.

What nearly broke the group was the encounter with couple of fiends. They actually held one of the flawed souls they needed but the price for it turned out to be quite steep. They wanted a soul in return, soul both good and evil, selfish and selfless. An impossible task at first glance but that was not what caused agony in the group.

"You are willing to go along with this?" Kaelyn asked catching Aneele's arm. The elf turned her empty stare at her.

"Yes."

"Did you not hear what they demand?"

Aneele cocked her head.

"The price is not so high." And how could it be steep? She was ending the existence of souls daily.

"A soul cannot, should not, be priced like that. Twisting and then trade it for a piece of-"

Aneele interrupted her.

"That and more. We must move from this dead point."

"To what lengths are you ready to go to reach your goal?" Kaelyn was of the higher planes, and she had always worked for the sake of lost souls. In her burned the need to help them, correct injustice. Aneele was not helping her in doing that. She was creating more disruptions. More souls in need of rescuing.

"I need to remove the curse," Aneele said simply as if that explained all there is to.

"At what cost?!" Kaelyn asked pressing the issue further. She could not leave it at this. She could not leave it, or else she would have to leave.

"I cannot answer that question, ask the spirits of Rashemen if you will."

And she did. Dove turned to look at Okku, almost demanding of him to agree with her on the subject.

"And what of you Bear God? Surly you must agree with me."

"Humph. What do I think? I have scarified my clan in life and in death to stop the curse from spreading. What is one human soul in comparison to the suffering of all the spirits through the time and dreams."

"Then we are in agreement," Aneele asked. Safiya nodded.

"Master Poruset will likely be able to mix two souls to get the 'flavor' the fiends desire."

"This is worse then just handing it over to a pair of fiends who would toy with it for the pleasure of several moments of fun," Kaelyn protested still. "You will twist it into something that should not be. Unnatural."

"Like I am?" Aneele pointed out. Kaelyn was stunned into silence. There was really no going around the truth of that fact. Aneele devoured souls faster than child would sweets.

"I will have noting to do with it," Kaelyn said fianlly.

"Then don't," Aneele said calmly, "but those doors won't open because we wish them to. If it'll help your conscience wait in Nefris' quarters until we gather the keys."

The priestess was silent for a moment before speaking.

"I will not work in condemning the innocent soul to eternal agony, yet I know I cannot prevent you in doing it. I agree and will wait for you in wizardess quarters." She turned around, her wings quivering and walked out of the room.

"I will never understand creatures from higher planes," Safiya said after a moment rubbing her head tiredly.

"I'm just surprised she didn't leave our company entirely," Gann said. "She was acquainted and helping a soul-devouring creature."

"Can we continue now?" Aneele asked placing her hands in her pockets.

She found herself standing unnaturally still. Aneele, even cursed was never one to stay calm unless she had to. But now she couldn't will herself to move, not when her past was all but starring her back in her face.

Nothing about his state reminded the elf girl of any ailment she was aware of. Not that she was aware of many to begin with but the cold shell lying before her hit too close to home for this spirit-eater. Behind her Safiya spoke, her voice laced with true detest.

"I've never liked this room… it is a ward for the soulless - those who've had their souls extracted by force. Under my mother, it was only enemies of the Academy who ended here. Did you… know this man?" She asked approaching.

Aneele was strangely placid, looking at the lying man. She ran her hand across his face as if she was trying to decide whether he was real. Rough skin covered in tattoos and lines, and sharp red beard. It was real enough.

"Yes. He's a friend," she said finally.

"He will die soon, if he stays like this. A body cannot survive long without an animating force - no matter what the tales would have you believe," Safiya started with her explanation but Aneele was already out the door and briskly walking down the corridor, backtracking to the room with two finds.

They stopped their deep minded conversation when the door to their chambers nearly flew of the hinges as the spirit-eater rushed inside.

"You return mortal. Do you yet hav-" one started when a dark tentacle of _Hunger_ ripped through the summoning circle and wrapped around his throat before sliding in his mouth, cutting his speech and his tongue alike.

"What is the meaning of this?!" The other one rose, his wings spreading behind him. When inky blackness started to spread towards him he pulled back. Gurgling noise from his companion was a good reminder of who was standing before him. "What do you wish?"

"You know what," Aneele whispered, and her voice contained both certainty and bottomless pit of void that not even a fiend would wish upon himself.

With the free soul Aneele had also received a warning. She had claimed the possession of his soul, not his redemption. Jerro's was a marked soul. When he dies, it would go where it has long been destined, and the hells will celebrate. And if she were to judge looks they had thrown her, these two at least would equally celebrate if her soul was to reach such destination as well. But her soul was not damned enough to end in hells, not yet.

As she brought the soul casing near him, its contents seep out as if through a membrane, and were drawn into his body. The _Hunger_ in her protested. It could have been a delicious morsel in between the meals. This time she ignored it's call and the pain accompanying the refusal.

A moment passed, and then at last, he stirred. He spoke before he opened his eyes.

"I am... still alive, yes?" His voice was as rough and raspy as she remembered it to be. It made memories stir with life again. Many of which she would rather have stayed forgotten.

"You're alive, but it appears you've made another critical blunder," Aneele spoke from above him. He opened his burning eyes but the sight he was greeted with was not the one he had expected when hearing that voice. In fact he nearly didn't recognize her at all. But it was her voice, even if the tone changed. He sat up slowly, feeling aches from prolonged coma.

"And you have survived despite my failure to prevent your abduction. I suppose I should be relieved. Yet I get the sense that you have not journeyed into the heart of Thay on my account."

"Not really, no." She replied easily. "I have become a spirit-eater, and a Red Wizard woman seems to be involved somehow."

Amon looked at her sighing and shaking his head.

"So a plot was set in motion after all… and my failure has brought doom upon you. It seems that calamity still follows in my wake, even in victory."

"How did you get like this?" She asked gesturing at him and the bed.

"A gift… from an old acquaintance of mine," he chuckled remembering. "When the King of Shadows fell, and everything around us was flung into chaos, I saw you being dragged away. The dwarf gave chase, but your abductors correctly assessed his intelligence and managed to lead him astray. As the only other witness not unconscious or dead, I followed them."

Good old Khelgar. He probably died somewhere between the planes trying to rescue a friend.

"You followed them for me? I'm touched," her voice was almost mocking. One of few emotions that showed up whenever she spoke. Amon rubbed his shoulder, he was decidedly too old for this kind of life.

"Your level of notoriety inevitably draws dangerous beings to your doorstep. For all I knew, you'd made a new enemy who intended to pick up where the King of Shadows left off. Also I was not… anxious to see such a fate befall a worthy ally."

Aneele ignored the comment.

"What happened next?"

"Your captors went through a portal to the Shadow Plane. On the other side, I was ambushed by the headmistress of this infernal place. She remembered me from a time when I'd studied here... enough that she knew to deal with me quickly and without mercy." His eyes darkened at the memory. "That was the last I saw of you… or anyone else. I was brought here and detained after that. And then… A procedure was performed upon me… leaving me as you found me."

Hearing the end of his tale Aneele glanced over at her three companions who listened the story form the background. She looked back at him.

"It appears there's a free spot in the group. Will you join me again?"

"Hm. Together we once achieved a goal none thought possible… but that was a shared purpose. To what end would you enlist my services now, when my foe is vanquished?" Jerro brushed his fingers through his coarse red beard. It would need some trimming.

Aneele arched an eyebrow.

"To save the life of one to whom you owe much."

After a moment of being speechless, stunned speechless Safiya guessed, he cracked a smile.

"You would have never said something like that before-"

"I was an idiot before," Aneele interrupted. "Your decision?"

"I do not deny that without you I may have failed to eliminate the threat from the Mere of Dead Men. If you consider this to be fair payment, then it is done. Very well. I will remain with you here until your business at this school is complete. Afterward… we may discuss that when we come to it."

"And we shall," Aneele helped him up, looked at him and then at her group. Kaelyn was no longer with them but Amon Jerro was ready to step in. "We need unique souls," she tossed a look at the body of a Red Wizard on the nearby bed. "Three more."

"If I know anything of my mother I suspect they too are hidden somewhere in the school," Safiay said.

"We should also hurry then. Some of the Red Wizards are growing increasingly hostile." When they looked at him, as it was the Red Wizards of Thay they were talking about, he simply shrugged. "More hostile then usual."

Sparks flew around as the image distorted and vanished.

"That is a harsh way to deal with your past," the old warlock said from the corner of the room. The safest place to be at the moment.

Aneele said noting, merely pulled the scythe out of the flat panel where only a moment ago a mirror image of her younger days stood, making sparks of magic and fire fly around. She pocketed the soul, being flawed as it was it did not stir any appetites in her, and left the room. Jerro was not far behind, yet still keeping a safe distance. He could feel eldritch power bubble in her, along with something else he had no wish to tempt.

Such drastic change of personality in her did not unsettle him however. He himself had gone through much the same thing in an effort to defeat the King of Shadows. It had cost him much. Though anything he had went through was willingly on his part even if he didn't always understand the price he would pay. Whatever happened to turn a sunny bubbly girl into a sombre killing machine who regards human life as a dry food he could only imagine but did not wish to dwell on.

When she didn't answer he sighed raggedly. His body still felt at odds after having his soul detached for so long.

"Do not be so hard on yourself. You were a good kid."

Aneele stopped, turned and one red eye bore into him.

"You say that now, when you have refused to teach me anything that could help prevent this state," she raised her bony arm. Had she any useful knowledge of her abilities she might have avoided the blow, if not the curse. Jerro frowned.

"Do not confuse my words, Ele'ena. You were a good child, you were not, however, good material for a warrior or a leader."

She snorted lowering her arm.

"I know that."

"I had refused to teach you because I knew you wouldn't be able to grasp the subject, talent or not," he continued explaining the situation from not so long ago. "We had not the time either."

"At least you are honest about that," she continued down the hallway. Jerro followed her closely.

"You've grasped the material well enough on your own I see."

"Necessity," Aneele said. "I have to disable the pray first in order to eat it. And no creature in Rashman would willingly be devoured."

"Good reason as any to improve oneself," Jerro shrugged.

"It doesn't bother you?" Aneele felt, strangely, compelled to ask.

"I have sold my soul willingly, Ele'ena. If your power could have helped stop the King of Shadows I would have gladly devoured many souls myself."

"I am not fighting the King of Shadows anymore."

"No, you're fighting for your own survival. That is equally difficult. Are your new friends unnerved by your behavior?"

"They are not my friends," Aneele corrected him. It was reflex similar to that when she would correct people saying Daeghun was her _step_ -father. "But yes, they have a problem with it. Especially with the possibility that they might be next."

"Can't say I blame them. Having your soul ripped out is not a particularly pleasant sensation. I care not to repeat it soon."

"I know," she said quietly rubbing her chest. "Come. The other should have located the rest of the souls by now."

"What makes you so sure," he asked.

"I have a strict feeding time and the school is growing empty."

Jerro paused for a moment before speaking.

"We should hurry then."

* - * - *

"Should we have left her alone with that man?"

"She knows him longer then she knew us. She will be fine," Safiya said looking through the souls in Repository. There should be two souls she could combine to give the devils what they wanted. Though she had to wonder why they should bother with such a trivial task when Aneele could simply frighten them into cooperation. Perhaps there was a contract in place to make sure they couldn't give it away. Mentally, she shook her head. It mattered little. They knew where the flawed soul was and they had to take it even if it meant trading with devils.

"Besides, I think spending some time with her past would do wonders for her sanity." She glanced sideways at the hagspawn. "Seeing how you are not helping." Gann frowned.

"I am not her keeper," he responded irritably. "I have no obligation whatsoever to *do wonders* for her sanity. Besides," he waved his hand in dismissal of the whole situation, "nothing I can do would move her from her frozen spot."

Holding a soul casing number 406, Safiya turned fully towards him, her expression was that of a stern teacher. She had years to perfect it.

"She has a dangerous and deadly condition to deal with Gannayev. You might want to take that into account when nursing your bruised pride."

The only response she got was silence. Apparently he wished to avoid the subject, whichever it may be, at all costs. Safiya looked at the dreamwalker curiously. He was leaning against the rows of shelves filled with soul housings and he looked tenser then she had ever seen him. Ever since the destruction of the Coven Aneele was giving him cold – colder – shoulder than usual. It occurred to her now that it was possible the sudden dislike went both ways.

Sensing the wizardess' probing eyes on him he looked up.

"Did you find the souls with necessary qualities," he asked tersely.

"I may have but-"

"Good," he was immediately next to her and took two housings from her, "Let us be done with this. This school is too suffocating for a free wondering spirit like myself," he said purposefully striding towards the door. Safiya looked at him with wide eyes.

"Gann, we should really check the souls out first…"

It was already too late.

No sooner then the two warlocks walked up the stairs to the classrooms area then the colorful array of magical origin filled the floor. Nothing that should be considered strange in a wizard's academy but the raised voices of her companions told her it was no simple blunder in a classroom.

"Did your new entourage already get into trouble?" Jerro asked rubbing his forehead tiredly. As if he was back in the Swords Coast. Accident prone companions and improbable situations lying in wait to happen just for their sake. Mad leader being the only exception here.

"This is a Thayan Academy. Is it even possible here not to get in any sort of danger?" Aneele responded with a bored expression.

"You speak the truth. I am glad to see your wits have remained intact."

Aneele tossed him an empty look before walking down the corridor. The situation in the Academy had to be resolved soon. She would have to feed again in the near future, she was growing more hungry by the minute.

"What is the problem here?" Aneele asked walking into the Soul Repository. The ones present were the Red Wizardess and the Bear God. And no sigh of the blue hagspawn. Both Safiya and Okku wore the expressions of disbelief and amusement and were careful to avoid the _problem_.

The problem being a large – and angry – rooster with a color and design, he could be easily mistaken for a peacock. He was colored in all shades of midnight and blue, with long, thick and lushes feathers coming from his tail that would make any hen swoon. Fluffy feathers on his neck were made even puffier in his angry tirade of noises at the red wizard who had one hand across her mouth and the other around her sides, and she was laughing. Finally, she gathered enough wits to explain Aneele what had happened.

"Someone tried to take the souls out of the Repository without a proper authorization," Safiya tried to sound serious but a smile just couldn't stay off her face. Aneele looked down at the bird who was trying desperately to look taller then he really was. Which wasn't much. A big blue chicken.

"Gann?" The elf girl asked reaching towards him.

The blue rooster paused in his fuming, looked up, squawked and backed away. He tried to run behind the wizardess but ended up blundering into the large Bear God where he was cornered by his large paws and an easy catch for the elf girl.

She picked him up and raised him over her head trying to look at him but he stubbornly refused to meet her eye. And when he did it was glowing bright blue with fury. Or embarrassment, the emotions were similar enough.

"Strange way to punish someone," she said holding the squirming rooster in the air before she tucked him under her arm like an expert peasant girl.

"The spell was devised as the punishment for thieving students but if it were to last too long then there would be no one to teach in this school," Safiya explained.

"It is easier to eliminate the competition when they are poultry," Jerro elaborated simply when Aneele looked at him. She stroked the rooster's feathers on his neck calming the polymorphed rooster down. He calmed down enough to even snuggle in, letting out quiet cooing noise.

"You have experience with handling the chickens?" Safiya asked looking at oddly complacent rooster-shaped dreamwalker. She knew then and there she would never let him live this down.

"I grew up on a farm," she said holding the rooster under one arm. "A good way to calm them before wringing their necks." The Gann-rooster, having the image form nightmare, immediately jumped and trashed around trying to get away from the trained-in-chicken-killing farm girl. It was to no avail. The spirit-eater was simply too strong and too proficient in dealing with farm animals. He did manage to glare and yank her hair harshly before she forced him to calm down and settle back.

"We cannot walk around with a chicken, even a blue magical one." Jerro rasped looking at the bird. It reminded him that he had nothing to eat in weeks for how long his body had lain in that room. He looked at the wizardess, "Can you not dispel it?"

Safiya shook her head.

"It will wear off on its own. Perhaps Okku can carry him on his back in the meantime," she suggested.

"I'd much rather do so in my teeth," the bear grinned at the rooster's another wild flapping in protest. The Bear God chuckled, "You've always chattered like a hen, now you finally look the part." Gann-rooster huffed, settled back in Aneele's arms and pointedly looked away.

"He even acts the part," Safiya said merrily. The hagspawn turned bird tried to preserve some dignity by ignoring this comment. It was a difficult test for him.

"Can we end this circus now?" Aneele asked, her voice flat as Grey Wastes. "How long will Gann-of-dreams be Gann-of-Hens," she looked at the wizardess who looked back at her before a merry laughter burst out and in one swoop Safiya was leaning against the wood decorated walls. Okku too was roaring with laughter and even Amon let out a small chuckle. Clearly some things have not changed with the esteemed Knight-Captain. She could still deal insulting nicknames like they were cheep candy.

There was a new name in the group and it was going to stay. Rooster-Gann, or Gann-of-Hens as he was henceforth known, showed his extreme displeasure by plucking violently at elf girl's thick coat sleeve. He would probably try to pluck something else out but he lacked the height for it. Not to mention she had him in a tight grip.

Once Safiya regained some composure, again, the wizardess wiped small tears from corner of her eyes and looked at the volatile blue chicken.

"Not too long I think, though I'd prefer if he'd stay like this," she added quietly and the rooster's feathers ruffled up all the more. She waved her hand. "You should probably carry him until the spell wears off. That way he won't be in any danger other than the prospect of being eaten by you."

"I don't eat animals," Aneele said stroking rooster's feathers. A reflex really. "Their souls cannot satisfy me."

"Did you hear that, Gann-of-Hens? You should be very grateful for the situation you are in," Safiya teased the blue rooster. Gann, of course having almost nothing to be grateful about, bit the abhorrent finger pointing at him.

* - * - *

One more soul key, and a group of dead memphits later, the group was climbing the stairs up to the Nefris' quarters. As with no teleport provided it was one long march up with the voices echoing around the walls.

"You bit me! How much more uncivilized can you hagspawn become?"

"You should spend some time with my kinsmen, wizardess. The answer should prove to be most profound." The other acidic voice followed the first. "And it was justifiable under those circumstances. You however, trying to kill me was not."

"The only danger in getting killed was your ego and that died the moment you started crowing, Gann-of-Hens."

"Do not call me so. And how else would you refer to having a loaded staff heading for your head? Spellcasting miscalculation?"

"It was not a staff, it was hardly a wand. And it was your own impatience that put you in that situation. And, by the way, you can thank Aneele for the new name, well earned as it may be."

"Oh, it only a loaded wand. My mistake, it looked terribly large from my perspective but I suppose that damage would have been proportionally _smaller_ since it was _only_ a wand. And so not even think about saying that… accursed name. I will deal with her myself."

"I'm sure you will. I can already imagine you trying to put the _Spirit-Eater of Rashemen_ in her place."

Jerro looked back at the bickering pair so far below them they couldn't even be seen then back up at the spirit-eater leading them.

"You were always good at making people follow you. Most of the time it was out of pity or fear for your life-" Aneele glared down at the older warlock "-or theirs in this case."

"You don't need to rub in the failings of my past, warlock. Especially since your own is not so smuggles."

"Fair enough. But I hope you realize that like many before they could die by accompanying you."

"Then they die. They are aware of that." Aneele moved several more steps up before pausing. "They and you, travel with the spirit-eater now. Anything can happen," she gave him a warning before continuing onward.

Jerro knew that. And it wasn't solely because there was a spirit-eater in their midst. They were heading towards things bigger and more dangerous than King of Shadows. He had hoped never to find himself in similar situation again. Especially not without knowing all the facts or having a plan first.

Back at Nefris' quarters Kaelyn has been waiting for them patiently. She was pondering on the creature that was Aneele. The curse was eroding the girl's personality to the point of her turning into a golem with one purpose only. To feed. Everything else held no importance to her now.

The others saw it likely as well but paid less head to it than Kaelyn did. Even Okku held onto hope that the curse could be lifted despite the ever growing lack of emotions and care coming from the elven girl. Such a shame really, she would have joined Kaelyn's cause readily were she not so frigid to compassion.

What the future would bring she didn't know, and as such she didn't know how far the girl would reach before collapsing. Her own goal Kaelyn had before her, and no matter the time or cost she would reach it. The Wall had to fall.

Her spared wings slightly when she saw the spirit-eater emerge through the door. She was followed by the man Kaelyn had not seen before, the Bear God and a bickering pair who continued to toss words like 'homunculi' and 'rooster' and 'tattoo' around. Quite an unreasonable behavior in times like this.

"Who is this old one?" The priestess asked looking at Jerro who huffed lightly.

"I would not consider myself as old in the presence of one from the higher planes."

"Behaving like Gann doesn't suit you Jerro," Aneele admonished and ignored the rude comment coming from behind her. "He is a friend, caught here by the Headmistress."

Kaelyn nodded. Another warlock? Her old mentor? And she had saved him from imprisonment? Perhaps there was hope for her yet, unless it was the force of old memories that prompted her to action. Kaelyn didn't know but had to wonder.

"You have the soul keys I presume," her voice was detached. Even with her great desire to tear down the Wall of Faithless there were still some things she couldn't abide to. Twisting a soul of an innocent and handing it over to fiends happened to be one of them.

Aneele walked over to the heavily bared door and pulled four incomplete souls from her pocket. The first three slid in their place without any incident but as she was placing the fourth one the room shimmered with magic and several Academy Masters appeared, Djafi included. Along with Araman.

"There," one pointed out with impatience, "The door is finally open, Araman. We have waited, and done _all_ you asked."

Safiya reaction was immediate.

"Araman! I owe you the wages of your treachery-" she was both alarmed and angered at the sight of the man, but her voice remained both accusatory and measured. Djafi shook his head.

"I told you, the girl doesn't deserve this. We do it quickly and mercifully, or I'll have no part-" the old Master looked to be disgusted to be a part of this.

"Silence. Wait." Araman's voice was quiet but commanding. His eyes searched and found one person he had interest in. Aneele turned fully to the man. She recognized him, even if his face was marred in lines and tattoos now.

"Young Araman. I've seen you before… in a dream."

"A dream… or a memory?" Araman asked looking not at her but through her. As of he tried to peel the skin of her face more than it was and see if anything familiar remained beneath. "Is there anything left of you, inside that hollow shell? Do you know my face… the face of a brother who once ran laughing in your wake? My smiles have faded, and your face has changed many times, but _something_ of you must still remain…"

It was not Aneele he wished to reach through and she understood that now. It was always like that. They never wanted anything _from_ her but rather something that was _within_ her.

She shook her head.

"Not mine. His."

"Not the memories of this mask you now wear… but they are _yours_ , yes."

The bizarre conversation between Araman and the woman was taking its toll on the surrounding wizards riddled with impatience. They were still afraid of Araman, but they did question what he was doing.

"What lunacy…? Araman, what _is_ this? With respect, I see no reason to play yet more games with-" But the older man cut in on his words.

"Turn away. Cast your eyes back to Rashemen… to home. Leave this place now, and none will hinder you. Beyond that door, you may find truth… but also folly. A folly that will sunder the planes, and render meaningless _all_ that you have suffered."

Aneele looked at the door and then back at him. She frowned.

"You expect me to accept my fate? Be consumed?" Aneele reached with the _Hunger_ towards the man and it… recoiled, squealed, had no interest in him. It surprised her. This had to be the first time since her curse manifested that it actively refused to consume.

"You _are_ the hunger," the old man continued persistently shaking his head. "The rest is a garment, to be worn and cast away. But if you are intent upon this, then I cannot protect you any further. My fight is not with you," he replied solemnly and with a wave of his hand and one final look at her, Araman disappeared. One of the wizards turned his back to the group, rallying his colleagues to attack finally.

"He is mad. Madder than Nefris ever was. Come… let's make an end to this, before he changes his mind."

Ignoring the power drunk wizards Safiya tried to talk Master Djafi, whom she loved almost like a father, into reconsidering fighting. Her sympathetic voice spoke more for her than her words ever could.

"Master Djafi, please! You and I, we live with Thayan ambition and treachery all around us - it taints our actions. But I know that our friendship was never a lie."

"Perhaps... my dear," his voice wavered. "But I…"

True, Safiya was angry at him for letting her mother die but she was able to push down that anger and speak to him calmly. She knew her understanding would turn him - and save his life.

"I _know_ you stood by… watched as they murdered my mother. I know you must think that condemns you to their side, but it doesn't… they would have killed you for opposing them…" Her tone was warm and caring. She had always seen Djafi as the closest thing to a father in her life. "You are the same man who comforted a frightened girl, terrified of the voices in her mind. And taught her to craft little chattering creatures of twigs and clay… _real_ voices to drown out the false."

He was not silent for long.

"You shame me, my dear. Surviving has become a habit - if I am to break it, _you_ are the best of reasons." What he felt was genuine remorse. In the end, he would always support Safiya. It was not so with the rest of the Red Wizards. They were at best disgusted at their colleague's betrayal.

"Fine. We'll appoint another in your place, Djafi - a Wizard with more sense, and fewer wrinkles-" he did not finish what he started as the eldritch spear of ice empowered by _Hunger_ smoothly cut through the loudmouth's chest. He barley had the time to turn and glance at the elven woman before the _Hunger_ tore the soul straight from his body.

Aneele's hooded red eye turned slowly towards the rest of rebelling wizards. Well, she _was_ growing hungry from constant walkabout school.

Djafi looked around at the newly created carnage. He knew, of course, that there would be bodies involved. It didn't matter whose now.

"What a waste. I suppose my colleagues were annoying, but I'd grown… used to them. A frightful mess, altogether. If anyone heard the noise of this awful business, I'll return to the Academy and head them off..." Djafi slowly walked down the stairs shaking his head all the way. He was getting too old for this. In fact he was too old to be a Red Wizard.

While the rest of her group was still recovering form wild spellcasting that occurred not a moment ago in the room, Aneele leisurely opened the bared door. They revealed a long room and an open portal at the end of it. Once more, as before with the Coveya Kurgannis, she was a step closer to ridding herself of this curse even when she still did not know what she would do once she was free.

"Drink up the potions," she ordered her eyes fixated at the portal. "You can heal along the way."

It was not cold, yet one could not shake the feeling that frost was rapidly spreading on the edges of one's clothing. There was no wind but the impression of the floating rocks moving like clouds in the storm could play tricks on the mind. There were no steppes yet the laid out spinal column served as a macabre but efficient replacement.

A voice came to them like a frozen whisper.

"Ahh… what is this…?"


	13. Chapter 13

Four arms, she noted curiously watching from side to side as she climbed spinal column turned stairs. Did all gods have such peculiar quirks? Or did they all grow to such monstrous size.

Pale fire for eyes pinned Aneele on the spot but she was a shell empty of emotions now. She hardly noticed the playful stare. She no longer trembled in the presence of immortal. Like a breeze the whisper continued from above, a break of the stillness in the Astral plane.

"Are you a dream? A fantasy? A recollection, spawned of my own dead mind?" Small chuckle followed his musings. "Yes, you are that, but you are more, too. I _know_ you, spirit-eater."

"Do you?" Aneele asked turning her eye to immense ribcage surrounding them, pillars of bone. Like a crumbling cathedral of death. It was fitting that the former god of the dead would be his own temple.

"You are an irony that walks… two fates bound together, both severed and incomplete," probingly, what passed for his eyes slid curiously across her to the others standing further down his spine. "And you have brought others… castoffs… discarded souls, such as this priestess."

Aneele turned to look at the half-celestial, whom the old god singled out almost immediately. Kaelyn stood proud and tall, unshaken by taunts of the dead god.

"She is of the higher planes… tinged with Kelemvor's blind philosophy, salted with the wretched tears of Ilmater's pity," he scrutinized her, piece by piece, with little emotion. "Are you here because Ilmater has now done as Kelemvor did?" He questioned and lights flickered around his skull, casting a dim shine on the winged one.

"Ilmater forsakes no one, Myrkul. Even ones who commit such atrocities as building the Wall of the Faithless and making vessels to feed its strength."

He chuckled, amused, but that laugh could make rain into ice.

"Ilmater may take pity on you, little bird, but Kelemvor severed you like a gangrenous hand. He smelled the death of faith upon you - with all his _pragmatism_ , he can be crueler than I… but he will not rule the dead better for it, I think."

"He rules the dead _now_ , Myrkul. One could even say he rules dead gods as they drift in this empty place." And her voice could mach his. For all their dedication to 'good' and 'justice' creatures of the higher planes were decidedly cold on the inside.

Again, that icy chuckle came from the skull. For Myrkul this must have been one of more interesting days since he died, no matter how contradictory that sounded.

"Perhaps. It is an amusing notion. But your life embodies an irony of Kelemvor as well."

Aneele raised an eyebrow.

"Irony of the dying?" She asked. Kaelyn cut in trying to divert attention from the dead god.

"He does not _know_ what he speaks of."

"Do I not?" Cold, raspy voice mocked them, and Aneele for one, believed him. Pale lights swirling around his head moved in a slow dance between the living before him until they surrounded the priestess. An effective way to single out a pray. "You sought to console the dying, soothe their pain and doubt. Then the _true_ pain came when you discovered where you were guiding them – ' _doomguides_ ,' an… apt name. What matters in healing their pain if the true agony is to come? That is what awaits them on my Wall."

"It is only a structure. It will not survive time and faith. It will not survive me," ignoring the lights that moved in a mockery of tenderness she spoke with such determination that it even made the spirit-eater think. Not about the Wall, no. She knew Kaelyn had no hope of tearing it down but rather how much of a pressure she would put on _her_ to accompany her on that foolish venture.

"You don't know Kaelyn as I do, Myrkul. She is committed to this," Aneele muttered stirring her thoughts away from idealisms.

"You would have an easier time dismantling Mount _Celestia_ stone by stone." He paused as seriousness crept into his tone. "Ritual and circumstance are not easily undone, little bird. And they are rarely accomplished by peace. Will you lead the living to slaughter and die for those already lost? What a _sacrifice_ for you to _demand_ of those who blindly follow you," the play of shadows made the skull efficiently sneer, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Time and justice favor me. You know not what you say, Myrkul."

Yet he still couldn't hold back her determination. A determination that was ingrained in all born of the higher planes. At the moment it could only be compared to the single-mindedness Aneele displayed as she pushed forward in search for cure. Or food.

"I know _this_ …" he retorted grinning all the more, "I know your Grandfather came to your god Kelemvor in secret. Before you mounted your _great crusade_."

A potent pause followed, and she could not help it. A crack of a smile appeared on Aneele's face, a reaction to her worldview.

"Is that higher plane hypocrisy I smell in the air?"

Light frown marred Kaelyn's face.

"He lies. My Grandfather shared no words with Kelemvor."

"Oh, there you are mistaken. He ' _appealed_ ' on your behalf - he apologized for your ' _narrow-mindedness_ ,' described you as a rogue grandchild that had not learned the _rules_ , the drumbeat by which the universe marches." He paused, for dramatic effect no doubt, as the swirling lights around Kaelyn slowed all the more. "Your own blood _condemned_ you. But it was only a small punishment, was it not? You had already discovered how thin the cloak of Kelemvor's faith was - it does not keep out the cold, not at all."

"His punishment cast you out of his halls, sealed the door of your _home_ to you - never again will you walk on the slopes of Mount Celestia, hear the chorus in the House of the Triad. You are an angel left to walk the earth, with only her burning need for justice to keep her warm. A fairy tale with a bright beginning and a fiery end, I think." The skull sighed in contemplation. "But isn't this how such falls always begin?" He teased, always hitting where it would hurt the angel most, for Myrkul was very skilled in such things.

"It seems the former god of the Dead is not blind to events - or to your overly zealous nature, Kaelyn," Aneele said crossing her arms casually.

Those words hurt Kaelyn. Like Myrkul, the spirit-eater know how and where to struck to turn words painful even if she had no ill intention but was merely stating a fact. Perhaps it was not so surprising seeing how both the dead god and an empty thing were made of same thing.

"I do not deny his words, nor their barbed nature. And I suspect that when he speaks to you, spirit-eater, the words will be just as painful. Some fall, it is true, but others, victory and justice sustain them until they reach the gates of their enemy."

"Ahhh…" he crooned, "a crusader's heart. Follow the same path, and the destination shall be no different, little ' _dove_.' I should have devised punishments and prisons for ones such as you, little priestess, who drift from god to god, leaving tracks in the ashes of your smoldering faith."

"Your Wall of the Faithless will not endure, Myrkul. Like you, it will die in time," she pointed a finger at him gesturing just where he was laying now.

"I have accepted death," unfazed, he responded. "You, however… perhaps in guarding death's kingdom, you thought such fates were beneath you."

"Who has fallen now?"

The lights surrounding her slowly pulled away, fading into dull dots. Myrkul's voice was calm, serious and a whisper.

"When you go before Kelemvor, little dove, see what he says to your reasons and your appeals. Ask him to dispense with ritual, with the agonies of the Wall. And _listen_ to his answer. At that moment, you will fall. You will know that the Planes turn, and _justice_ does not drive them."

"Once you were the lord of decay, of corruption, of wasting away… and now you are at the mercy of all those things. It makes me suspect the universe _is_ just."

"Like your former god, you favor blunt action and brute force, with little regard for what such actions cause farther down the road. And perhaps what you see is not justice, but only amusement and irony… two things which I value more."

Blue set of lights for eyes turned faintly towards another one, and the lights of scrutiny shone brighter again. This time the spotlight was on the dreamwalker. Gann caught the lights circling him from the corner of his eyes but otherwise focused on the dead form above him. He was still not impressed. He _chose_ not to be impressed.

"And this one - _he_ is bound for my Wall. As the coven said, no?"

"If the Wall remains there when death comes for me, I shall crack it from within," he said defiantly but the old god had apparently heard such speech before. It could do nothing but bore him.

"Braver and stronger have tried, spawn of hags. Despite your ego, the universe does not bend to your whims… and it is I who set the rules long ago. But you still do not _believe_ in gods or faith, even as you look upon my corpse," from a taunt his voice took a serious note. He had encountered creatures not unlike the dreamwalker before, long ago. "But I suppose to believe in ones such as me - to you, that is a death of a different sort… and no less painful than dying within my Wall of the Faithless."

Gann blinked in sudden darkness as the bright orbs again moved from one to another. It was Safiya's turn now to endure Myrkul's taunts. She gripped her staff tightly, no one would relish such prospect.

"And what _other_ detritus clings to you, spirit-eater? The red woman… _she_ has been here before. _All_ that she is now, she owes to me… and to you, spirit-eater."

"Your memory is fading faster than your name, old god, and you're wrong on two counts." Her voice was that of angry teacher, methodical in her rebuttal. "First, I have never been to the Astral realm before this moment, so this is _not_ a reacquaintance. And second," she lowered her voice in a hiss, " _I_ owe you _nothing_."

"But you stood before me just a short time ago, red woman, burning with rage and love in equal measure," the play of shadows made certain that a crocked smile was on his visage. The pass of centuries was slow but it brought such interesting changes with it. "What a shattered thing you have become… as ignorant of your own nature as the one who leads you. If only your beloved had _accepted_ my judgment of you, your suffering might have ended long ago," he paused and a whiz akin to sigh was heard.

"The sight of you has grown tiresome, red woman, even to these dead eyes."

With much less inner calm than Kaelyn, Safiya was sure to throw something at the dead god, blue flames however, discarded Safiya like an old rag leaving her no choice but to keep silent. Ammon Jerro, the old warlock, placed a hand on her shoulder shaking his head. He may not enjoy in hearing the twisted truths coming from the dead god but he knew it was not _their_ place to argue back. That responsibility fell on Aneele's shoulders.

Dismissing the wizardess, the lights dimmed again, and this time they finally moved on to the prized contender. Aneele watched lazily as the globes circled her.

"Spirit-eater… speak, and tell me what has brought you to this boneyard of gods."

She remained silent for a while, watching the orbs float with vague interest. She had questions yes, but they needed to be sorted out first. Finally,

"I was told," she looked up tilting her head, "that you were dead and gone. How do you speak?"

"A god does not easily die… he lives in the fears of him, which linger on... in the _doubts_ that he is truly gone… and in the suffering of those whose lives he brought to grief."

"Yes, spirit-eater… even _your_ suffering sustains me. Every anguish that you sow, you unknowingly dedicate to me. Every mortal who cowers or cringes at your name… they are also cringing at mine." Shadows played a wicked smile upon his skull, "With every such pain, the embers of my soul burn a little brighter than before."

Aneele nodded, they were getting somewhere now.

"Two fates… bound into one. Your point?"

"Two fates… yes. Of the hero who plied the Sword Coast, and awoke in a barrow, soaked in blood, I know little. But the other... the Betrayer, Akachi... he is _just_ as I left him." She did not hear that note of self-satisfaction in his voice before. "He is _empty_ now… a ravening void that seeks always to fill itself up… to regain what the Wall took from him. So he _steals_ what he lost... a face, a body, a name. These are a mask to be worn for a time, until they are _also_ devoured by his unending hunger." The lights passed close to her face, almost brushing against it. The mask his former priest now wore. So it was as she had suspected. Those dreams and visions had to have come from somewhere.

"So this hunger within me… was once a living man?"

"Yes. A man whose crimes against the planes were unsurpassed… and I devised a fitting punishment to match them. The Betrayer's hunger was born in the Wall of the Faithless," he explained, " _I_ placed him there… and watched, as his _mind_ slowly drained away… His thoughts, his memories… these were _torn_ from his grasp, one by one. Emptiness filled him… the _hunger_ of the Wall."

"But before the Wall could consume him completely, I tore him free… so that his suffering, his emptiness, would linger _eternal_."

"And his crime?"

"He raised an army. Marched against the realm of the dead, against his _god_. Is that not crime enough?"

"Why?" She persisted with even simplicity.

"For 'justice.'" His eyes blazed brightly for a moment. The very memory of it was enough to enrage his old spirit. "To tear down the Wall of the Faithless, and set free all the souls that I had bound within. To _defy_ the order of the planes, the compact between mortals and gods."

"Was that truly all?" She asked in a calm voice much a contrast to his forceful one.

"Do not presume to hurl blame at _my_ door, spirit-eater. I cannot account for the treacheries of every mortal soul… only for their _consequences_."

"But why me?"

"Oh, it was no matter of choice…" he taunted lazily, but most important, knowingly. "The Betrayer has become an empty, mindless thing. When he devours one mask, he simply waits for the next to appear. Perhaps you blundered too near. Or perhaps… he lay in darkness, trapped and forgotten, and someone _gave_ you to him. Only _love_ could be so cruel, I think."

Aneele felt like snorting. If love was truly so cruel to cause this to happen to her, then Myrkul must have been a lover extraordinaire in his prime. Though he had a point in what he said. Waking up in a barrow was far too convenient.

"If the Betrayer lurks within me…" she started slowly though she had little doubt now as to what had happened to her, "then what has become of my soul?"

There was a pause and to her it appeared that the skull grinned further with the knowledge it was about to bestow upon mortals. And the suffering such knowledge would cause, all in his name.

"I made a place for Akachi, in the Wall of the Faithless. Your soul has gone to fill it." Hearing his amused whisper Aneele stood very still rubbing her chin. Yes, that explained a lot actually.

"When the Betrayer's hunger finally consumes your body and mind," he continued, raspy voice slithering around her, "then your soul will dissolve into the Wall, and you will be no more. To reclaim your soul, to _tear_ it from the Wall… only in that impossibility might you find your salvation. But how to assault the City of Judgment? Unless you were to follow a road _already_ prepared..."

"The Betrayer's Gate. The door at the bottom of your vault, in Mulsantir," she said remembering the black gate and visions of it.

"Yes, spirit-eater. That Gate is a doorway to the empire that I lost… the realm of the dead. Do you have the key, I wonder? You possessed it once. It is that which you and the Betrayer held in common… the silver blade of the demigoddess, Gith."

Again with that sword. She should have known the moment she saw the replica in Crematorium that she would never be free of it. Inside of her body or otherwise the Sword of Gith seemed to have found a new master in her and refused to budge.

"And now… the Sword awaits you, fully forged, in the sanctum of one who _loves_ you. _Everything_ in place… almost as though it was planned this way, from the start." His amusement knew no boundaries… he knew that what he was talking about was true. Yet there were so many things concealed, lying in shadow. The old god did not speak of things unless they served his purpose, Aneele began to understand that much. And looking at him laying here in the place where gods come to die, she knew there had to be something more to it. Empty of emotions her mid was free to make quick and accurate conclusions.

"You're only telling part of the truth, Myrkul. Akachi's punishment was also something more."

"Was it, then?" His voice stiffened. Aneele proceeded.

"You said that my suffering helps keep you alive. That my hunger sows fear and pain, and these sustain you," she took a step forward, and if it could, the skull would most likely lean back.

"I said those things… yes. If you are so clever, spirit-eater, then make your point," he almost snapped but tried despite that to keep a degree of levity.

"My point is this. The spirit-eater was a contingency… a plan to keep yourself alive. If this curse was ever ended, your evil works would be forgotten, and your consciousness would fade."

There was silence. A silence of astonishment and surprise to be sure, both for her companions and the one grinning above her. And then the dead god laughed privately. After all these centuries, Akachi had finally found a mask that would lead him to the right track. Not that it mattered.

"Ahh, spirit-eater… what a sure wager you were. And of _all_ the masks, you are the first to know what you _truly_ are. Two faces, bound together. One betrayed my faith, the other never worshipped me at all. Together, you are my truest disciple," he was most pleased with himself. And Aneele could sense a wrapped compliment in there somewhere. Ghostlights moved close around her, colder than anything she had ever felt. "The irony is deep, and worthy of a god's devising."

"The plan is _yours_ , then? For your deranged pleasure?" She asked almost feeling the need to reach out with the curse – Akachi – to snuff out the orbs. And he too was growing restless, deep inside of her.

"The pleasure may be mine, but the plan is not. Your ally and your enemy are one and the same, spirit-eater… and I am _neither_. _Use_ the blade to open the Gate. Assault the City of Judgment, and _tear_ your soul from the Wall. _Finish_ what Akachi began."

"Your captains have waited _long_ for your return. When the Gate swings wide, _they_ will come like loyal hounds… tongues lolling from their mouths at the very thought of a new Crusade."

"What captains?" Aneele asked sharply. It would be too easy to have an army already prepared to go against Kelemvor when she needed it most.

"The fallen angel… his wings dark now, their luster surrendered for you. The dragon… bound by a debt that she cannot repay. And the lich… craving the answers that lie beyond the Gate. But to whistle up your dogs, spirit-eater, you will need the Blade. Only two portals provide passage from this drifting cairn of mine. One brought you here - the other will lead you to the sanctum where the Blade and your 'ally' await."

"Go quickly, spirit-eater, if you would look upon her face. You will not be her _only_ visitor today."

Aneele turned her head slowly to toss a look down the spine of the not so dead god.

"Araman followed me through the portal. Didn't he?"

"My hound is clever, is he not?" He taunted playfully. "You opened the door, as Araman hoped, and now he follows your ally to her wretched den. You saw him in your dream of the Gate… saw him for the priest he once was, who served me at his brother's side. And turned against me, at his brother's whim.

He chose his brother over his god, but in his brother's defeat, I showed him mercy. He _saw_ his error and repented on his knees.

"Did Araman really repent? Or did you give him some _encouragement_?"

Cold lights moved ever closer to her, to squeeze her almost as amused voice whispered coldly from above.

"Ah, spirit-eater… perhaps some part of Akachi _does_ still linger in your mind. You know me as he once did." Aneele saw no compliment in that. "Yes, I ensured that Araman would not betray me again. I set a geas upon him and imprisoned his soul in the City of Judgment… a hostage, until such time as he sends your ally's soul to its rightful place."

"And his soul?"

"It lies in the Fugue Plane, still. The decree of a god is not so easy to change… and Kelemvor is loathe to reverse _any_ judgment, lest he be seen as too human, too _weak_." Something _he_ had no problem with when he first took the mantle of a god. "And your ally's very existence breaks _his_ law, as well," he said quizzically and Aneele had to wonder if it was the Red Woman from her, Akachi's, dreams he was talking about. Nefris? She was dead. But he had also referred to Safiya as Red Woman.

Her mind tried to puzzle out the entire game, played for so long by so many. Yet, only few characters were constant.

"What do you gain from all this, Myrkul? If I end my affliction, you lose your contingency plan, and your 'life' here will fade."

"Will it?" He questioned fully sure of the answer. The lights finally pulled away from her signaling the end of their conversation, and returned to circling the horned skull. "You may spare _your_ soul the agony of the Wall… but Akachi will live on. His hunger was born of the Wall… born of emptiness. You cannot destroy that which is _empty_. The spirit-eater will live on, as will I."

"And in assaulting the City of Judgment… I glorify you," Aneele whispered. He heard and a warped self-satisfied smile appeared on skeletal face - he was certain, he would win no matter what.

"In _everything_ you do, spirit-eater… you stoke the embers of my soul."

She nodded, understanding. Yes, she had the information she was after, filled with holes and half-truths. She paused, tilting her head slightly to look at the blue flames for eyes. And yes, she could do that. Akachi would appreciate it, she was certain.

"Before I go…" Aneele looked up as inky blackness spread around her feet. Crawling, stretching, searching. The sight and sense of it were enough to drive many a spirit mad with fear. "We have unfinished business between us."

"Do we?" He hissed, his confidence intermingled with uncertainty as the _Hunger_ slithered up his bony neck and skeletal visage. "The hunger of the Wall holds no sway over gods, and death has put me _beyond_ your vengeance." Yes. Even the dead gods of death feared it.

Kaelyn placed a gauntlet hand on Aneele's shoulder, fingers digging in the coarse material forcing her to look back.

"Careful - Myrkul is a god. To feed upon him will corrupt you with his evil, and it is more than any living creature can withstand."

"Devour my spirit, and my consciousness will only fade for a time. As you sow suffering in my name, I will wake once more." How self-satisfied he sounded. Aneele aimed to rectify that.

"No. No, you won't," she said softly as the _Hunger_ – Akachi - engulfed the skull. Kaelyn, now in panic, shook the elf's small frame but what happened with the body had noting to do with what the curse did.

"Listen to me! Do not do this – to devour him will doom you as well!"

Aneele paid no attention to her. Her focus was on the vindictive dead god of the dead. He could do noting but pretend to be confidant. Not even his knights could help him now, he knew.

"That is a wager I will take, spirit-eater. You dream of a thing that cannot ever be." As the _Hunger_ reached his eye-sockets the light in Myrkul's eyes guttered out suddenly and not so spectacularly – he was drained, for now.

"We shall see. Sleep well, Myrkul."

Behind the thundering sound of metal feet upon bone was rushing towards them. Aneele sighed as the _Hunger_ settled back, filled and content for now. Devouring Myrkul had left a particularly spicy taste in her mouth, hot and unusual. One she wouldn't mind trying again.

She shook her head ignoring the noise of spell and sword and roar in the background. This was getting far too addictive even for her pigheadedness to control. Of course, it was not like she could afford to get addicted at the moment. Neither her body, nor her soul can last much longer. No matter the simplicity of existence the curse brought with it, it was still borrowed time.

She fingered the solid essence in her hand. It radiated evil and malice like nothing else she had ever felt, especially towards her. Would every part of Myrkul be devoured or did some of his charming personality end up in this spiritual lump? Now, for what she could use it, she mused. Certainly not an armor. She did not fancy having him so close. This would take some thinking and tinkering

" _Aneele!_ "

The sound of her name being called so franticly by a familiar voice, she couldn't remember exactly who it was, made her turn her head lightly only to see a death knight all but cutting her down already. Lazily, she uncrossed her arms and touched his adorned breastplate freezing him in the spot.

Her hand turned milky white, then her arm, shoulder, neck and chest, until it reached her head and erased her face. For the first time in many hundreds of years the Faceless Man had a shape outside his host's mind.

And he would indulge his endless _Hunger_.

The portal transported them to a place not unlike a dungeon or a catacomb, except there were no undead but a whole lot of red robed mages. Araman's followers. He had used their endless talk with Myrkul to take the lead in the search for the Founder, the woman Aneele suspected now was the Red Woman from her dreams.

"I did not think that one minor school could hold so many mages," Gann said with a sigh after they've stepped from yet another teleport. "Especially considering how many has died already during his takeover."

Aneele felt an almost familiar sensation, like it was all happening all over again. Portals. The bane of her existence. She felt Jerro stand close to her. Yes, very familiar indeed.

"Most were students here, but it is possible that Araman had found allies outside of school. Any self-respecting Red Wizard would surround himself with minions," Safiya said with a sniff. She, of all, did not seem the least bit surprised by her students' easy switch of sides. Among Red Wizards it was to be expected.

"Is Araman a Red Wizard at all?"

"He has been pretending long enough to become one."

As the others talked Aneele started to feel dizzy - this in itself being a surprise - she actually felt sick to her stomach. She had not felt anything else but the pangs of _Hunger_ for quite some time and this came as a complete shock to her body. Her leaning back against the wall did not go unnoticed. Safiya was immediately by her, even as Jerro was gently trying to steady her.

"Is it the curse again?" He asked.

"Sort of…" Aneele replied her vision blurring. She felt a large nose and fur brush against her cheek and reached out to hold onto the bear god. His rich spirit essence had a calming effect on the _Hunger_.

"It is Myrkul," Kaelyn, who was staying in sullen silence until now, interrupted angrily. "Have I not told you not to devour him? Giving him an eternal rest would have been much simpler and serve justice."

"Devoured… put to sleep… does it even matter Kaelyn?" Aneele asked taking a deep breath. The Hunger within her twisted and turned, and the drums in her head had intensified to an almost painful rumble with no rhythm behind it. Gods, this was worse than the time Casavir tried to prepare lunch.

"Apparently, if you are this close to collapsing under its weight," the celestial replied testily. Between them, Safiya's quick mind understood the situation immediately.

"Akachi has digestion problems?" She asked incredulously.

"So, there is something the spirit-eater cannot eat. Curious," Gann rubbed his chin. "Not that it helps us poor mortals any." Sometimes he wished he knew a little more about healing, seeing how the priestess was completely uninterested in helping her.

"And unless you can relieve her of pains this talk does not help her any," Jerro grumbled looking back at the elf. "And you all need not coddle her so. She's made of stronger stuff," he said in clearly admonishing tone to the rest of the group. Such attitude from one of her old companions perhaps came as a surprise to them and perhaps not, Aneele didn't know but she was grateful to Ammon Jerro at least. Holding on to Okku she staggered back to her feet and pushed forward, the bear god staying close by her side.

"We move forward then," she said taking a deep breath. She pulled out her weapon. It seemed that for the time being she would have to deal with the opponents the old-fashioned way.

As the group moved forward the two spellcasters took the rear of the group. After many minutes of watching him Safiya finally spoke. Jerro wondered how long it would take for her curiosity to float to the surface.

"You have studied here before, haven't you?"

Jerro looked at the young wizardess, and in his eyes she reminded him very much of her mother in appearance, though perhaps not in method of work.

"What gave me away? The fact that I have mentioned it earlier, or the tattoos?" He brushed his palm across the glowing marking on his head. Unlike Safiya's his burned with eldritch energy every warlock carried in his, or her, veins. But something like that would not intimidate Safiya and she narrowed her eyes.

"Both. But yes, I was curious about the tattoos. Few would have recognized it outside this school. Your _custom_ creation, I presume?"

"I needed to focus my magic for specific reason," Jerro responded after a moment. He had indeed travelled through many countries in his search for a way to defeat the King of Shadows. He looked over at the elf girl leaning against the bear god for support while rubbing head, her eye empty of any spark of emotion. He did notice that she had developed a close bond with the spirit, perhaps even without realizing so herself. Strange for one supposed to be empty. On the other hand, Ele'ena had always been a social creature, having soul or not.

In the end, all of his knowledge was used to guide the one who would complete what he could not. And then she went on to become a danger that the Ilfarn Guardian ever was. _The luck of heroes_. He snorted. If those bards spent any time on the road instead of penning their stories from others they would know there was no such thing, and all who believed in it were ignorant fools.

"What was she like?" Safiya asked suddenly. The warlock did not look so much surprised with the question as little annoyed. Why did people always have the need to dig around someone's past?

"Why do you ask? Her past hardly matters in the face of her current situation?"

"Maybe. Still, I can't help but wonder what kind of person she once was," she said looking over at the girl as well.

"Had she not mention anything of her past at all?"

"Not much. I know she came from Sword Coast, and I know she was wounded in a great battle. Much as I disapprove of his nightly escapades, Gann caught a glimpse of how she was. He did not go into details, though."

Finally, Jerro said,

"She was a carefree child."

Safiya looked confused.

"That cannot be all."

"That is all. There is no greater mystery behind her. One girl born and raised on the farm and caught up in a grand adventure," he spoke calmly, as if reciting some tale of old. "Tell me, daughter of Nefris," he said interrupting the silence, "how far are you ready to go for her?"

"A strange question to ask but I will answer you. As far as it takes," she responded calmly but the edge in her voice spoke of sealed determination. "I have given a promise which I intend to keep."

"Good. Because far you will have to if she is to anything as she once was."

Ahead of them, another very familiar conversation was taking place. In Aneele's humble opinion, the theme was repeating itself far too often.

"You know I care nothing about Crusade or the Wall, Kaelyn. I'm here for my soul, nothing more." Aneele said dragging her fingers through Okku's fur. It felt so very soothing her twisting insides. She only hopped the bear god didn't mind it as much as the hagspawn did.

"I refuse to believe you can be driven by such selfishness. This is not solely about you, but all souls across the planes!"

"I don't have it in me to be selfish at the moment," Aneele responded sounding uncharacteristically tired. "You may think of me what you will but do not force your opinions on me. If Kelemvor does not let me have my soul peacefully I assure you that I will tear down that Wall brick by soul-soaked brick."

That had to be enough for the priestess as she spun around and walked away. Her greatest ally and the inspiration she had held high was refusing her time and again. She began to wonder how could she have ever place any hope in this wayward child. A child that worshiped death no less.

Once Kaelyn had moved out of the earshot Aneele turned to Gann, who suddenly felt very, truly small. It was the look mother gave to a child with its hand stuck in the cookie jar. The look fathers gave to a would-be suitor caught in the bed of their only daughter.

The look the spirit-eater gave to a potential meal.

The frustrating part was, he should have been already used to it by now. How many times had she stared him into submission now? Too many to count. So yes, he should have grown immune to it. But one glance at the empty hooded red eye and a shiver down his back told him that, no, he had build no tolerance whatsoever to her whims.

"What is it?" He managed with as much dignity and courage as he could muster. She was most likely still angry about his outburst earlier this day. Well, in turn, he was still miffed about the whole Gann-of-Hans business.

"Did you tell her about Bishop?" She asked coldly.

"The man in the Wall? Why would I tell her about that?" He asked in rather confused fashion. He might have mentioned something about their little trip trough dreams and planes in the Coven, but he did not disclose all of the gruesome details.

"Because you have trouble holding your tongue inside your mouth."

He made a sound and a movement akin to that of a rooster puffing out his feathers. The equivalent among humanoids would probably be either a pout or an angry huff. Or something else even angrier

"If you must know – yes, I have mentioned meeting an old acquaintance of yours and you using the _Hunger_ to execute your revenge on him." That hard empty gaze didn't move from him. "I have not, however, mentioned the way you have done so." Finally she looked away. In fact, she turned away from him entirely. From absolute scrutiny to blissful disregard in less than a blink of an eye. Oh, how he hated when she would do that. "Why does it bother you so what she thinks of you?"

"She uses me as a symbol now. She doesn't know if I can tear the souls from the Wall. I would prefer if the situation would not escalate."

"It was a dream, Aneele. A dream of the Wall." He paused. It didn't sit with him well to separate dreams and reality when they were one and the same for him. "Dreams can take you to many places but-"

"You still do not believe in it when even Okku knows of its existence."

Next to them Okku shrugged.

"It is a place you can deny existing but it will not make it any less real," he rumbled. "Yes, I know of it even if my dreams have not taken me there."

Gann paused clenching his spear. This was a subject he was two minds of.

"Does your dead god speak true? He seems a false sort... but this Wall he speaks of, _that_ had the ring of truth. Is this wall where _I_ am bound when I pass from dream to silence?"

Aneele fingered the essence in her pocket.

"Myrkul would take more pleasure in a truth that caused pain than a lie, I think."

"If that wall is where I am bound, I would tear it down with you. In helping you, I would save myself. Besides," he smirked, "I would be pleased to wipe the bony smirk off that dead god's face."

"I've already done that, have I not?" Aneele replied sullenly. Perfect. Another one recruited for the Crusade. She made a grimace. More and more it looked like she would have no choice in the matter. Again. Not that it mattered to her deity. She was free to carry out this assault.

"You certainly did," he looked down at her, something akin to worry written on his face. "How are you holding up?"

"Sick. I feel a dreadful need to vomit."

"But you haven't eaten anything."

"So says you," she sniffed. "You really do have an attention span of a chicken."

Gann stiffened in mid stride. He turned around quickly and was certain that there was a spark of mischief in that left eye of hers despite the tiredness she had succumbed since devouring Myrkul. He leaned very close to her and lowered his voice.

"Rooster. I was a rooster. For an hour only. But thanks to your efforts I will be known as," he winced merely thinking about it. Saying it made it all the worse, "'Gann-of-Hens' henceforth."

Aneele looked around. There were only the Bear God, the half-celestial and the Red Wizard with them. And her old warlock companion who had even less interest in gossip than one might imagine.

"Who would tell?"

"Okku knows and Okku is enough to spread the word and enjoy it," the bear god next to them rumbled in amusement though he really didn't have any inclination to do something like that, expect perhaps to remind the hagspawn of his place. He shook his head, cubs these days.

"You know, I was planning to apologize for my behavior from this morning," he started icily, "but after what you did I don't think I will," he said briskly moving forward. That insufferable girl and her bear pet.

Aneele looked at him walk away curiously and shrugged. Her mind felt heavy.

"My apologizes for touching your spear without permission," she said quietly. "And I promise not to touch anything of yours ever again, be it your items or on your person."

Gann's eyes widened. He stopped. This was not what he expected. This was not what was supposed to happen.

"But I-" he started, paused and lastly, exploded. "What, in spirits' name, are you apologizing for?!"

"I shouldn't?" She cocked her head looking at him with that single eye. And again it was the kind of look that settled somewhere inside his head. How unpleasant. "You looked riled up over it."

"It is true that I do not like when people go through my personnel things, and I would have been grateful for you to have asked first. That is all." He was still vastly confused. What was her motive for this?

"Mmm… you don't like plenty of things."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" He raised his voice but she cut him off by turning around and pointing at the portal on the ground.

"We go left."

The hagspawn was let standing there in utter confusion, and some other seething emotion. He would never be able to make sense of her. Way was she the one apologizing?

Ahead, Aneele squeezed a fistful of bear god's fur.

"Don't say anything Okku."

"I had no such intention, little one," the bear god replied gruffly.

The battle and raised voices had brought two little homunculi flying forward, growling threateningly.

"They are fighting mistress," one said pointing at the door that just then came crashing down in a cloud of dust and dirt. The two creatures scampered into safety immediately with a squeak.

Araman's body was nailed to the reinforced wood by a great scythe with a small elven girl standing over him.

"You say I cannot touch you, you say your soul is safe," her old scythe dug deeper down his chest, cutting through flesh and bone alike easily. "Then I will see you in the City of Judgment where we will settle this."

"Again you are making a mistake… heading towards the same path of destruction… all because of her…" he breathed as much as he could with his lungs torn.

Aneele's eye narrowed. She pulled the scythe down, cleaving him in two. A gruesome, bloody mess was left behind. Disregarding the body she quickly stepped off the body and looked around. She desperately needed…

There were golems around, and books, and as her luck would have it – a workbench. Well stocked too. She walked over to it immediately, pulling out necessities for her project. By the time the others walked into the room Aneele was already hard at work, molding and sculpturing.

"A little help with the remaining mages would have been nice," Gann said dusting craning his neck. With all the time spent in the Academy, the local mages were proving to be more of nuisance than a true danger.

She did not reply however and others just shrugged it off. It was, after all, typical Aneele behavior.

The two little homunculi peered from their cover and hissed at the intruder who was now using their mistress' supplies lavishly.

"You can't use that!" But one sideway glance from Aneele sent them scampering with a squeak. She had no time to deal with toys.

"Hessa… Jassim… shoo!" An old woman came tottering forward from the back of the room, seeing them for the first time. The homunculi moved behind her immediately, cowed. She gently rubbed their heads as she looked up, "Give me a moment… to gaze upon…"

All had guessed that this was the Red Woman both Myrkul and Araman were speaking of, and were so keen on killing. Safiya, however was one to end up in shock. So much so, she couldn't even finish her sentence.

"M… _mother_? I thought you were… dead! And you're-" she rushed over to hug her, ask her questions she should have known the answers long ago.

Aneele halfheartedly listed to the conversation behind her. Her focus now was on the self-imposed task before her. And she still felt ill. If her suspicions were correct she would do well to hurry.

From her magic pouch she had already pulled out the broken scythe she had found in Myrkul's temple, and from her pocket, the essence that belonged to Myrkul himself. Looking at it pulse with malice in her hand she'd wager she could put it to good use.

"I'll tell you all of it, Safiya," the aged woman calmed her gently. "Let me just greet…"

"Yes, all in good time," she said trying to stay serious but there was a hint of excitement she couldn't quite hide.

Footsteps sounded behind her and Aneele turned slightly to look at the old woman, who in turn was smiling sadly. She noticed a twitch in her hand as if she wanted to do something more but look, but held back.

"My Akachi… how our faces have changed. I've seen hags that are comelier than the prune that I've become. And you... wear the skin of a lady," she smiled gently, noticing the humor in their rather tragic situation. "What a _pair_ we are, my love." She paused and lowered her voice sadly, "I must be hideous to you… to _him_. If Akachi was not… the thing that he is… he would turn away from me with loathing."

"I am not him. I cannot judge," Aneele said after a pause before returning her attention to the molding. Coaxing the metal and wood under her fingers to become what she wanted them to be. She needed a staff and a head.

"Oh, I don't think you are _him_ … not really," the old woman said with a small chuckle waving her hand in dismissal. "My Akachi is _gone_. Little remains of him but a mindless hunger, seething beneath your flesh." Her voice downed down to a whisper, "And the fault is _mine_. I was the one he went to save… the soul he tore from the Wall. So much lost, for one fool girl. My beloved launched a Crusade, and sacrificed _all_ that he was."

She shook her head tiredly.

"Better that he had left me to rot, perhaps, and found another pretty thing to distract him from his faith."

"And the souls in the Wall," she asked not pausing in her work. She had to have this done soon. She didn't know how long she will be able to hold it back.

"And what war has ever been fought for one reason, only?" She paused thoughtfully, she had pondered her lover's motives for centuries. "I think… he came to see what was _wrong_ with his god… with all the gods… because of me. If he was here, I would tell him… I have _never_ rested since that day. This Academy… all you've seen here… all this was for him. I _know_ I cannot bring him back… but I can end his pain… and the punishment that he never deserved. _You_ have given me that chance."

"Strange, I don't recall you _asking_ for my help," the blade of the newly crafted scythe gleamed as liquid darkness started to spread across its smooth surface.

"Did I place you in the barrow?" She asked sharply. "Yes. Allow you to be joined with the monster that my beloved has become? Yes. Did I tear the shard of Gith from your chest? Not with pride… but yes. I have deceived you… relied upon your own self-interest to end my lover's curse… done evil for his sake… yes."

Oh, she had done quite the number of things, Aneele knew. She was the one trying to survive through them.

"Then you deceived _me_ , as well," Safiya realized, and it wounded her deeply. "You never told me the truth, you merely said-"

"That the stranger's life was worth more to me than all the lives on all the planes. That you should treat this stranger as if-"

"As if she was as dear to me as you. As if I loved her." Instantly, she remembered her mother's words and finally understood them. The Founder placed a hand gently on her daughter's shoulder.

"Safiya, I never lied to you. You didn't understand my words, then… but they were true, nonetheless. And you, stranger…" the old woman looked back at the elf working over her bench, "who have suffered so much for a love you never knew… yes, you must think me a monster."

"But what do good or evil matter in the face of love? Love will break an oath, shatter a man's faith, and outlive gods. Love endures when your greatest hope is merely to end the suffering of your beloved… even if he can never again be yours."

Aneele glanced up from her work.

"If this is love, then I agree with Myrkul that it is a cruel thing," she said quietly. Somewhere behind there was a tired sigh. Aneele paid no heed to it.

"From your perspective it must be," the Founder said softly. "I can only hope one day you will find someone to heal the damage I have caused and change your opinion for the better."

"Do not say that but rather explain, why me?" Aneele said quietly turning her attention to forming a skull upon which the blade would sit. In her head Akachi's drums altered between being so loud and very quiet.

"Because you had the _will_ to master the blade of Gith. And because, through the Sword… you are bound to my beloved, and to _all_ the Sword-bearers. In a sense, you are his heir… the first in many long centuries. And some part of him _knows_ it. You have more control over your hunger than any of the others."

So it was all about the Sword. There was nothing special about her as a person. She had no special quality aside from the fact that she had been a shard-bearer for most of her life. Had Ammon Jerro picked a different spot to battle the King of Shadows none of this would have happened. But alas, such was her luck.

"And finding my way here?" She asked forcing herself to move forward.

"I never meant to leave you on your own. Lienna would have told you what you were… enough to understand your curse, but not to lay the blame on me." She paused again and sighed. Yes, she had grown so very fond of them. "Lienna and Nefris… my hands in the world outside this sanctum. Araman slew them both. He had watched me… waiting for all my fragments to reveal themselves. He knew of Nefris already. When he found Lienna, he struck. And you… you were abandoned, with only my Safiya to guard your way."

"And if Araman hadn't struck, what then?" Aneele paused in her work rubbing her stomach, even when the source of pain was not coming from there. Drums in her head made it difficult for her to concentrate although Akachi had something else to keep his attention for the time being.

"Nefris would have told you… all this. The truth. She'd have given you the Sword, as well. But she'd have left one truth untold… you would never have learned of me. Nefris was prepared to play my part, and to die at your hand, if need be."

"A simple piece of theater… a single lie, hidden beneath many truths. Lienna knew stagecraft, and she thought that best."

"Lienna… Nefris… they were pieces of your soul, like Safiya," the elf tried to understand how much further the Founder had actually gone in her attempt to save Akachi. Dividing her own soul. It took some courage to even think of doing it.

"Fragments, yes. If one of us was slain, the others would carry on. And Akachi would not be abandoned. And each of them had… talents… of her own. A mind, a soul… can be teased apart, its elements distilled."

"Every person has talents, weaknesses, obsessions. All but the strongest are drowned out in the clamour of the mind. Sever one aspect from the rest, and suddenly it is stronger, more focused, than it was as part of the whole. "

"Then… the voices I hear…" Safiya cut in realizing finally.

"Were _our_ voices, yes. Our thoughts. We were linked together, Safiya, our minds never truly separate. Nefris wanted you to know… she thought it practical to tell you. But I forbade it. If you'd shared in our secret… you'd have shared in our _blame_."

Aneele glanced between the two women, who despite great age difference resembled each other very much. Not that it shouldn't be expected seeing how they were one and the same person.

"Then rescuing my soul from the Wall," she pressed, "can it be done?"

The Founder looked at hell firmly and nodded.

"All that Myrkul told you was true. He was sadistic and insane, but never a liar, when the truth would serve to wound." She walked, slowly due to her age, to one of the backrooms and several minutes later she returned with a large object wrapped in cloth. Removing it carefully she exposed the freshly crafted Silver blade, complete with groves and old decorations to adorn it.

"Here is the Sword of Gith... its pieces gathered together, the blade reforged as one," the Founder said offering her a very familiar yet very different blade. Pausing in her work and with a hint of confusion that just flew over her face, she held the hilt offered to her. "It will see you safely through the Betrayer's Gate, to the realm of the dead. I can do nothing more for you… for him. If I've earned your vengeance… then take it."

It was bigger now, the flat surface of the blade was wider and no longer filled with holes but it was undoubtedly the Silver Sword of Gith. And it hummed with pleasure. Tracing the invisible pattern where many shards were fused she sensed one that felt very familiar to her and painful to her memory. One that she shared her life with.

Yes, even if it was back where it belonged, a part of the whole, the connection between its former host was not severed completely. If anything, it strengthened the bond with the sword all the more. She understood then that there would be no end of it, not until the day she died.

She placed the sword on the workbench carefully. She had made her peace with it. It was hers now. And it will serve her well. But there were other things she needed to take care of. She took up crafting again.

"No matter how much you might deserve it," Aneele said combing the head of the scythe with the staff, she had so little time remaining. "I will not kill you."

"She manipulated you - used you! And yet you…" the best way to describe the young wizardess, was floored. "I didn't think anyone could forgive such an act… the Founder was right to trust in you... as was I."

"I did not forgive her Safiya. I am no saint. But I gain nothing with her death." Aneele, feeling sicker by the minute, attached the tainted blade from Myrkul's temple into the skull. With her ability to shape essences she molded Myrkul's across the blade, the skull and the staff, combining it into one whole.

"I promise, you _will_ be freed of this curse. Even if the gods themselves try to stop us, I will be by your side - you have my word." Safiya's voice was warm - she's overwhelmed with gratitude. Her mother lived even if it was not as she had expected it to be. Aneele did not remember her mother, not to speak of father. She could not relate even if she had a soul. But help in lifting the curse was welcomed and necessary.

Suddenly the feeling of heaviness increased as the founder continued to speak. She felt sick to her stomach. Or in this case Akachi's stomach.

Delicate crafting tools fell from her hands as she grabbed onto the edge of the bench, the _Hunger_ coiling and screeching within her. She could hear voices around her but couldn't make up the words. She straightened herself, shaking her head.

"Please… stand back," she whispered as the Hunger spread out behind her like black tattered wings. Cold sipped into the chamber.

"Akachi…" she heard someone say and then something else followed but she paid no attention to gibberish behind hear she could only feel something crawling, twisting, screeching, wanting to get out of the endless abyss that the curse was. Some souls were simply too great, too strong to be pulled in, to simply disappear. None succeeded before but no spirit-eater had the audacity to devour a god, even a dead one, before.

She felt so sick as if it would split her in two. The _Hunger_ , the Faceless Man, did something it had never done before. It vomited.

An, essence, of pure evil, crawled from manifested curse. Inky blackness spread around, conscience free of _Hunger_ and the corpse in Astral plane.

Everyone backed away even further, perhaps even too startled to cast spells, she couldn't say. But she could react. She knew this would happen. The scythe she had just molded into existence came crushing down into the newly spawned mass, and Akachi worked diligently forcing the soul into the weapon.

A new prison for the old god.

Finally, the _Hunger_ spent, Aneele brought the weapon, the skull, to her eye level. It hummed with the wish for her to die a horrible, horrible death. She was so tired but she managed a smirk of her own.

"You did not believe you could actually get away, now did you?"


	14. Chapter 14

The portal the Founder had provided had landed them in the Shadow Theatre with their goal just across the town. They had time to rest, recover and replenish their stock of weapons, potions and other things that might prove helpful, before heading for the Vault. But in all likelihood the battle in Kelemvor's realm could be very short. He was a god on his own plane and few could stand up to him.

Aneele with the bottomless abyss brewing within her perhaps, but her recent troubles with Myrkul proved that gods, dead or alive, were still off the menu, for now. Weaken him, yes. Erase him from existence, sadly, not yet.

"This will be a dangerous venture. Braving the Sunken City or the Thayan Academy will prove fairly minor in comparison," Kaelyn noted choosing her weapon carefully from the assortment they have collected during their travels. She had learned that different enemies demanded different approaches and with that, she never got attached to one weapon for too long. Kelemvor's knights will most assuredly be one of the more difficult opponents she was to face in her struggle to end suffering.

"Not that we can ask anyone for any advice on how to attack a god's realm," Gann snorted from the side. His belief in gods as such might be nonexistent but he had little doubt in their destructive power as spirits.

"He is not all that powerful," Kaelyn assured him. Gann was perplexed. The celestial truly believed that.

"In his own house? I should think that's where he is at his strongest," he countered. He had already agreed to go to this plane of the dead and help Aneele. He knew death could strike him at the very beginning of battle. He did not approve, however, of dying because Dove's beliefs should be taken as facts.

"Would this argument lead anywhere?" Safiya interrupted them, sounding more than a little annoyed, but it could have been apprehension sneaking in behind it all. "We have neither the power nor the weapons to best him, but Kelemvor's realm is where we are going. Once we meet with the 'Generals' we will proceed from there."

"And they would answer only to Akachi no matter what they face."

Kaelyn sounded both pleased and irked, if such a thing was possible. An great army that would follow the one who had the least interest in continuing the Crusade beyond her selfish needs.

"Will Aneele be up to it?"

It was a foolish question. They all knew she was more than 'up' for it. Yet the question was still there on everyone's mind.

"She will devour the entire city of the dead if that is what it takes to retrieve her soul."

"Where is she anyway?" He asked, finally looking around the chamber. He had not seen her since they'd entered the Vault. She had showed little interest in discussing the upcoming war despite its importance for her survival.

"She is not wandering around on her own again, is she?" She looked up worriedly. While Aneele certainly knew how to take care of herself, Safiya least of all liked the idea of the elf being alone in her current condition.

"There is nothing on this level of the temple that we should wo-"

The Vault rattled.

It was not the explosion per se, but something shook the building straight from its shadowy roots. There was no magical sensation or fire to speak of but shadowy partials in the air rose, fell and swayed with great commotion. A second one followed, shaking the foundations more violently than the previous one, so much so that some of the pillars leaned and whined under the weight of the building.

"The Crematorium!" Safiya's voice broke through the commotion in the air.

"Why would she choose that dreadful place to go in?" Kaelyn shook her head but followed the others.

Even before they'd reached the embalming room, a blur of inky blackness rushed past them screeching and howling. It disappeared into thin air leaving behind bone chilling coldness with whimpers fading into the distance.

From behind the corner Aneele appeared with an empty expression and hands in her pockets.

"What happened?! We heard an explosion," Safiya asked, scanning the room for any potential danger that might jump at them from the shadows.

"Proper application of the food chain," she shrugged and walked past them.

Several moments of stunned silence later, Gann exploded,

"Let us go to that cursed plane and be done with it! I am tired of her not making any sense!"

"Indeed," Kaelyn whispered. "Her foolish decision to devour Myrkul has cost her greatly. She will not last much longer."

Safiya, the one who always had a plan – one of the benefits of having a Thayan on board was that they always had a plan – marched over to her enchanted backpack and pulled out several bags heavy with coins, and a scroll.

"Here hagspawn," Safiya said, placing it all in his hands so suddenly that he nearly overbalanced it and let the golden content spill on the floor. "Go to the bazaar and get as many healing and protective supplies as you can. And sell all the junk we don't need."

"Me?" He looked at her in disbelief. "What makes you believe that any of the merchants would give a better price to me?"

"Because they wouldn't barter at all with a Red Wizard and Kaelyn doesn't know how to get the best items at the most lucrative price. Besides," she waved with a wand dismissively, "I have to speak with Magda."

"So the heavy burden of charming the merchants rests upon my shoulders," he sighed once again, most dramatically. "Very well. Despite my undeserved reputation I shall do my best to empty their supplies and conserve our coins at the same time."

Putting all the gold they'd collected – and it was ridiculously much – in his bag he opened the scroll and read its contents. To his surprise the list contained almost nothing but healing potions, kits and medical spells. He understood they were going to war and that staying alive in the realm of the dead – ironic really – was paramount, but he expected at least a few more destructive components.

"Why so many healing potions wizardess? Both Kaelyn and I are well proficient in treating wounds." Kaelyn more than him but he had enough knowledge to help. She glanced at him over her shoulder with a sour expression, as if she expected of him to know what she was thinking of. Gann, for his part, would never want to know what went on in the head of the Red Wizard. Her dreams he would be curious to visit, but suicidal he was not.

"Those are for her," Safiya said plainly. "She had not eaten, drank or slept for more than three months. If anything, the return of her soul will put her at death's door."

He had not thought of that.

He should have.

"And take Okku with you," Safiya called after him lightly, as if it was an afterthought. Gann looked at her curiously. "His presence might make bartering easier for you where Witches are concerned." Because yes, the Witches held the greatest supply of healing materials in the entire town.

"I understand that the witches are not so fond of me, but I hardly need an intimidating ball of fur with me to get the job done." Even when said job consisted of nothing but shopping.

"Take. The. Damn. Bear." She intoned, gripping the wand tightly. To Gann's expert eye it looked like a wand she had threatened him while he was transfigured into that animal, a wand of mass destruction and high damage distribution. He opened his mouth to protest, because wand of collateral damage or not, he would not be threatened into submission like a common-

"Take Okku with you Gann," Aneele's empty voice sounded from the dark.

And that's all it took for his pride and self-esteem to crumble. He glanced at where the elf was.

She was sitting on the floor right under the great painting of the first crusade, the Silver Sword's dreamy shape resting at her hip awkwardly and that cursed scythe leaning against the wall, it's sickeningly black blade posed as if to fall on her neck at any time. Her arms were crossed over her drawn knees and she was twitching lightly.

Her body was failing her.

He also noticed that as Kaelyn moved from one room to another, her black eyes rested more and more on the Silver Sword, and not so much on the ill bearer. However this Crusade might end, Gann had an inkling that Dove had set her eyes on a very helpful tool she could use in the future.

He wondered if he should mention it to Aneele, but ultimately decided against it. That girl could notice things before they actually happened.

"Very well. I shall take the bear out for a walk," he said, lightly straightening his shoulders. "But if he gets lost along the way I will take no responsibility for it."

Once Gann was out of sight, Safiya looked at the supplies she was sorting out.

"Should we bring food to the Fugue Plane?" She asked. "It doesn't take that much space in the bags."

From her place under the painting Aneele looked up.

"We will either win and come back, or die and it won't matter anymore."

"That's a bleak outlook on things," Safiya remarked. She preferred to consider herself a realistic optimist. And currently she was realistically optimistic that they would succeed.

"You should leave Kaji here. He might get caught in the battle," Aneele pointed at the little homunculi fluttering around the wizardess' head and shoulders. He shook his head quickly and dug his claws into Safiya's red robe.

Working his way through the words Kaji finally understood what the elf meant and clutched his mistress' robe.

"Don't want to stay!" He squealed.

"Calm yourself Kaji. You'll not stay alone." She looked at the impassive spirit-eater. "Where I go, Kaji goes as well," she said in such a tone that settled the matter.

"You are still determined to go through with this?"

"It is what my mother, the Founder, has given her life for. I cannot- will not give up when I am so close."

Aneele blinked at the passion behind her words. Thayans.

"The Founder must have loved him greatly," Aneele said from the dark. Safiya waved her hand impatiently.

"Akachi has nothing to do with my reasons. I do not love him. I do not even remember him. I am Safiya. The Founder might have fashioned me on the image of her youth and innocence but memories of him she did not give me."

"That may be for the best. Soul or not, I'd feel dreadfully uncomfortable should you start looking at me the way the Founder did."

Stunned for a moment Safiya paused in the middle of packing.

"She didn't!"

"I dare say she did. Love and stars, and all the gentle feelings under the moon." The elf shook her head. "I am not even going to pretend I understand."

Safiya opened her mouth to say something Aneele wouldn't appreciate, but then decided against it. She watched the elf girl curl even further into herself. Perhaps things will work out once everything was over.

"You need to see if the others are ready to battle soon," Aneele said with detachment in her voice.

Provided they survived first.

Hours later Gann had successfully emptied the coffers and provisions of three different merchants in the Bazaar, made sure the priest in Kelemvor's temple lost his yearly supply of healing potions and was now working his way through Katya's store.

Bartering with her didn't go half bad as he expected it to be. But then again, Katya and Sheva did not have as hostile a disposition as Kazimika did. That witch was currently trying to flay off his armor, skin, muscle and bone with the power of her glare alone. Or perhaps she would stop at his skin.

Her eyes were full with fury and inbred sense of superiority. This one prided herself to be a witch and law in a country where those two words meant the same thing.

"Has your search for the cure proved fruitful?" Sheva asked breaking the sound of coins and potion bottles.

"You'd better be off asking how far into the madness the spirit-eater is, Sheva," Kazimika added with a condescending tone, not taking her eyes off the hagspawn. He certainly wouldn't mind rearranging a few of her dreams.

"Actually, I am happy to say that we have discovered the reason behind the curse," he paused for a good effect, "as well as its cure."

Next to him Katya gasped nearly dropping the neatly packed bottles and Sheva Whitefeather looked at him like he had just grown a second head – or something equally surprising. Only Kazimika's eyes narrowed behind the slits of her mask.

"Impossible," she said firmly, but with a raised hand Sheva shushed her.

"Is that true hagspawn? Has the cure truly been found?"

He grinned for all he was worth.

"Oh yes. And we are heading today to… acquire it. With little luck in less than a tenday the spirit-eater will be no more."

"That is good to hear," the old woman sighed and her voice revealed relief. "And is one of better news I have heard in a while."

"If it comes to pass the spirits will rejoice everywhere," Katya nodded.

"Lies!" Kazimika insisted angrily. "The curse had been around for centuries. Were it so simple to remove it, it would have been done so long ago."

"Perhaps if they had been helped rather than hunted down…"

Yes, Kazimika had it in her to drive even the most patient of men to unspeakable acts. He was certainly tempted to- but no. Were he to do something like that the suspicion would immediately fall on him, and Aneele would lose what little favour she had with the Witches.

"Mad creatures that would sooner eat you than ask for help," she hissed.

"And would there be help for them had they asked?" He countered.

Kazimika opened her mouth to say something, but the bear god stepped in.

"Save your words for some other time. My barrow is warm and waits for my return once the spirit-eater is no more," he grumbled from his spot near the statue of Chauntea. "And I wish for swift return."

Diplomatic as only a bear could be, Gann thought, but he was grateful nonetheless. Who knows how it would have ended otherwise? Any final word he would bring to the table would with no doubt anger the Witches. And with their purchase complete they immediately headed back to the Vault.

Gannayev was pensive. More than usual.

Despite the insults the Witches would howl his way there was always an undertone of longing behind their eyes. Something hate and indignation could not hide completely. He had seen it in every woman he had spoken to.

Except the one he was following.

Every time she looked at him he felt scrutiny, the Hunger deciding if he was good for something other than a passing meal. Gann had little doubt that should he step over the line – which he had no idea how it might look like – that she would come down upon him with all the fury and emptiness, and he would be no more.

She did not hate him – she'd have to care for him first.

"You'll walk over the edge of a cliff in your daydreams, hagspawn," Okku said glancing at the blue man.

"I do not daydream," he said tartly. Indeed, daydreaming was for poor fools who couldn't walk through dreams as they wished. "I was merely thinking of the future."

Okku let out a bearish snort.

"I wouldn't have thought you would give your future much consideration."

In truth, he hadn't. And because he didn't he decided to counter it with a question of his own.

"Do you already know what you will do, old father bear?" Gann asked with a taunting smile.

"Once my oath is fulfilled I will sleep and dream. And this time there will be no nightmares for me, or my kin," the bear god spoke wistfully. He turned his great head to look at the dreamwalker. "And what of you hagspawn?"

"Me?" Gann asked with a raised eyebrow.

"This journey nears its end and should this end prove favorable for us, what will you do?"

"With the reputation of helping the spirit-eating curse end I could do many things," he said with a flourish. Never mind that he couldn't think of a single one at the moment.

Okku chuckled.

"I am not surprised. You are such an inconsistent creature. You go where the road takes you."

Gann frowned indignantly.

"It is better than sleeping the eons away. I suppose the others have made such plans," he sighed.

"They indulge them, yes."

"And what might they be? Forgive me, but other than concern for Aneele's health I have heard little more from the wizardess' mouth. Though I can guess what Dove is planning for her future."

"Indeed. The Red Wizard would return home free from her promise as I will be from mine." Gann chuckled at the image. She would most likely in a great spectacle of magic demolish all the rivaling wizards and take back the school founded by her older self. "And the little one said she would return to Sword Coast."

The hagspawn paused in mid-stride.

"What?"

'Little one' was a term Okku used to refer to Aneele. But she was not someone to disclose anything about herself, particularly in the state she was in. He had not heard her say a word of her past. Or her future.

"She said she did not know what she will do with her life but that she would start searching at her home."

"She speaks with you of that?" The hagspawn asked slowly.

"Often," Okku responded. "On many nights when she kept watch and the others slept."

Gann wasn't listening. He felt strangely bitter and cheated.

Lately she had done nothing but berate him yet with Okku she had long conversations on her future. Had he done something so grave to insult her? He did not know, but he was certain that he had been well behaved and even supportive during the past month.

Perhaps he should just accept the fact that her bond had grown thicker with some, and was almost non-existent with the others.

He'd be damned and would sooner believe in gods than give up like that.

"Come along hagspawn," Okku called from up ahead, "or I shall have to tell the Red Wizardess how I lost _you_ in the crowd."


	15. Chapter 15

Had she been in the position to choose and care, the Fugue Plane would probably not be on the list of places she'd like to visit. Seeing how both choice and care was taken out of her hands, Aneele walked down from the hill as if she was coming home.

In simpler words, she was grumpy and wanted things done quickly.

Ahead, the green and gray walls of the great city were already under siege. Demons, angels and undead alike were only some of the faces that could be recognized from distance.

"It doesn't look like they bothered to wait for us," came the remark from one of her ever observant companions.

Aneele cocked her head watching the gaseous fire explosions and rain of ice and acid spread across various sections of the Wall. The crusade starting early could work to her advantage. With Kelemvor's forces spread out to push back the attack, she could move through the city quickly in an attempt to locate her soul.

The only problem being that she had no idea in which section of the Wall her soul might be. Without that knowledge, any attack would be useless.

"This is a great moment," Kaelyn said, standing next to her. An aura of whiteness, like pale fire, surrounded her. Her armor and weapons seemed to have gained an extra shine and she gad gained an extra height.

"Not really," Aneele said quietly, looking across the smooth plane to where a familiar figure was waiting for her. She broke off from her group and walked over to the warlock who looked none worse for wear for someone who had spent nearly three months in a soulless state.

His burning eyes turned to regard the smaller warlock. She looked worse by a margin, but could still move and function. Jerro found her stubborn resilience fascinating. Now more than ever he regretted that any good traits she might have had were so grievously overlooked in Crossroads Keep.

He inclined his head in a curt greeting.

"The place is secure… for the moment."

Aneele nodded, glancing briefly at the distant battlefield. They were too far away to be spotted, but the sounds of combat could easily be heard.

"Thank you for coming," the elf said, though it was difficult to tell if she truly meant it.

"I have many debts that I will be required to pay eternally. That I could settle this one while I still live is an idea that brings some small comfort," he replied softly. Following that, he pulled out from inside his robe something that caught Aneele's eye.

"Here." He handed her a tightly wrapped collection of scrolls. A book in disarray, one might say. "This could prove helpful in the future should you choose to dabble further into the art."

Cautiously, Aneele unrolled one of the scrolls and raised an eyebrow upon seeing the inscriptions. She had not thought of trying this before. Perhaps she should practice first, before applying it in praxis.

"Thank you," she said again, putting it back with her other possessions. As an afterthought she added, "It will be used."

He nodded, expecting that. She'd be a fool not to use them. Many things a young warlock should know before starting to relay on their instinct are written on those pages and most were notes written by himself.

"I must remain here outside the Wall. I am of little use to you without my servants, and they have prior agreements that would free them from my bindings, should they set foot inside the city."

Unfortunate, but understandable. Aneele could deal with that.

Jerro in return let his eyes rest on the creatures that had chosen to follow the little gray elf all the way here. They had politely kept their distance during their conversation. He assumed it had something to do with their dislike of him, and blind trust in her. In the end he could only hope they would prove to be more than a meat shield for the girl.

"I will bind more fiends here and help to defend this position until you meet your goal. Or until I meet my end," he finally added with a gruff voice.

"I should hope not. Good company is hard to come by," Aneele replied, surprising him but only slightly. She glanced at her companions, finally joining them, and then up in the gray sky. "They have noticed us."

Then, a tall man with dark wings landed before them, intercepting their way. Behind him a blue dragon, and a great jeweled skull followed. Each one looking just as ancient as the city behind them.

The angel was the one to speak and address Aneele, though any actual similarity with Akachi was questionable at best.

"It has been a long time, Akachi. It is time we finished this, once and for all." His voice was much like that of Kaelyn - calm, collected and soothing. It was his words that irked her.

"I am _not_ Akachi," Aneele said flatly. Negating herself as Akachi had become somewhat of an introduction for her. She was doing it without thinking now.

"I meant no offense. The name is revered among us, and I was unsure if you had taken it as your own."

"I've heard of you - Zoab, fallen solar, and one of Akachi's three lieutenants during the First Crusade."

"Exiled," he corrected flatly. Like her, he was a man who had been repeating that for a while, " _not_ fallen. I still battle evil and tyranny in my own way."

"It seems I'm late," she noted looking over to the battlefield behind the angel. Akachi's army was there. Her army now. An army that would help her regain what she had lost.

The angel shook his head lightly.

"No, we have not been here long. The others and I sensed your arrival on the Fugue Plane was imminent, so we assembled our forces quickly."

"And what exactly do our forces consist of?" Safiya was quick to ask. Her Thayan mind was already doing calculations of possibilities and outcomes, all in the range of realistic optimism of course.

"A host of celestials has accompanied me, and Rammaq will no doubt conjure servants as needed. Sey'ryu has come alone - same as before."

"It looks like they've sent people out to meet us."

"To parley, yes, perhaps demand that we turn away and leave. I trust there's no chance of that?"

"I will not speak with them. He does not intend to give me my soul back," the elf said quietly, and without any sign of bitterness in her voice. She looked at Zoab. "I am here now. What is your plan of attack?"

"Your book," Aneele said, handing over the carefully wrapped package. It floated from her hand up and in front of the skull's face. Jeweled eyes twinkled with cold excitement as the cloth covering the book fell to the ground.

"Only one?" He inquired in surprise. "Such was not our deal."

"They know of you. The book was taken to safety long before we got there," Aneele said with an air of finality one could not help but wonder at whether Akachi wasn't somewhere behind her eyes.

"Without both tomes, I cannot attain my goal. But, I am still a step closer, and I may yet discover an alternative path," he replied grudgingly. He was not afraid of a child elf with a lifespan shorter than that of a fly but he cared not to antagonize mindless Akachi she held within. Especially if she held memories of events from days long since past.

"An ally of mine shall join you once you have located your soul. Use him as you see fit. Farewell, Aneele. We shall not meet again."

Kaelyn stared hard at the spot where just a moment ago the demi-lich stood. Her attention was diverted with the sounds of great battle in the distance. The assault on the Gates must have heated up.

"We should head back," she started readjusting her gauntlet nervously. They were so close to her goal now she could hardly relax her muscles.

Aneele said nothing. Her eye remained focused on the distant fires.

It was decided earlier that they would split into three groups and attack the most prominent places at the same time. Not surprisingly, Kaelyn decided it would be the best if she were to accompany the elf. Aneele didn't mind it either way. Thus, Gannayev and Okku left with Zoab to silence the Voice in the Basilica, while Safiya and Jerro stayed at the Gate to help Sey'ryu keep their position.

It was all to be done in an attempt to drag the Scrivener from the Temple. There, and only there, she would be able to locate her soul. And if the thick smoke was any indication, most of Kelemvor's forces were diverted to the gates.

"Kaelyn."

The celestial turned to look at the elf who was watching the smoke rise from the direction of the Gates. The others were making good progress. Unless it were their bodies that were smoking.

"Do you know where the Temple with the Codex is?"

"Yes," the cleric answered somewhat irritate. Why would the girl ask such a question now when they still had an army to defeat?

Aneele turned one red eye in her direction and Kaelyn felt an eerie coldness run down her spine. In the pale light of this plane her face looked like that of a walking dead.

"Then you will take me there now," Aneele ordered, letting the tip of her silver sword cut through the stone street as she brought the blade down.

By the time Zoab, Gann and Okku returned to the Gates, the battle was in full swing. Though to him it felt like a minor skirmish and that feeling had nothing to do with his confidence in his own abilities.

He was told that Kelemvor's army never truly died and that he had armies at his disposal. If that was truth he certainly wasn't sending them over now.

To his left, Safiya was raining a shower of destruction unlike he had ever seen her do before. Okku was an unstoppable force on the front lines. To him swords were mere twigs and spells like a morning rain he could shake off with ease.

Gann's summons, along with Jerro's, could keep a good deal of knights occupied but for all their combined strength this very much seemed like an exercise in futility.

He also wondered where Aneele and Kaelyn were. Their assignment couldn't have taken this long. They should have known better. He could sense she was still alive through their bond forged in dreams, and he could sense it moving further away from him. This was not right.

He looked up and saw fire rise from within the city walls. Were he one to believe in such things he would say it was a bad omen.

"What is that?" He asked the angel, gesturing at the tall plume of ash and smoke.

"The Temple. The Temple where Scrivener and the Codex are! She is heading to find her soul."

"Now?!" He was perplexed. "The plan was to return to the gates first."

"And now we keep Kelemvor's forces occupied so she can move through the city unnoticed."

"That is beside the point," Gann growled. There was a reason why Safiya insisted that they stay together. She would need extensive healing once she regained her soul. Why did that girl always insist to do things her own way without telling anyone first?

He motioned to Safiya and Okku to follow him, a gesture they often used in battle, and he prayed to the spirits that they wouldn't find Aneele dead and Kaelyn holding the Silver Sword of Gith.

The Codex listed the names and location of every soul who had been entombed in the Wall of the Faithless. Her eye had been drawn to a particular name - her own. Next to it was listed the section of the Wall where her soul was held.

This section of the city was empty of residents and its guardians. Aneele glanced around, looking for the street's name. If it was the correct one, then her soul should be somewhere in the Wall near here. Preferably on this side of it.

"I am surprised you've let Araman live," the cleric accompanying the spirit-eater said. Aneele's eye remained focused on the barely distinguishable faces in the Wall.

"Akachi was against it. He is his brother still."

Kaelyn pondered the information. Aneele never spoke how much of Akachi exactly survived but it had to be enough to keep her from devouring the soul of his former lover and brother. A pity really. She would have loved to ask him many things of the First Crusade and his successful strategies.

"This is the place the Codex described," Kaelyn said next to her. She frowned in sadness at the screams and cries of the souls in the Wall that were clearly audible in the dead silence. She shook her head. Yes, she would free them all, she had sworn to do it, but right now she guided the one who needed her help most.

"It shouldn't be too hard for you to sense it. You are still connected to it, despite its prolonged absence," the celestial tried to explain. She suddenly stood still. Her wings and muscles tensed. Next to her, Aneele rolled the shoulder of her sword arm and glanced to the side.

"Kaelyn the Dove," the voice spoke, dominating but not menacing, "leader of the Second Crusade, and formerly one of my doomguides, returned."

The celestial turned fluidly even if the god's presence was overwhelming. Something the elf girl didn't even notice, apparently.

"You are not welcome here," he continued sternly, "and your grandfather cannot intervene to save you a second time. Your presence is a reminder that I should not have been merciful."

"Has _anything_ you have done in your reign been merciful, my Lord? I think that is the question _you_ should ask."

"Pride is not a shield from me, Kaelyn. Do not test my will in this." His masked face turned to the small, tired elf. "And you, spirit-eater. You have brought strife to my gates… ignored every warning… allied yourself to a cause whose consequences were plain before your eyes."

Listening to him Aneele closed her eye. She felt very tired.

"Do you understand what you risk? Bring down the Wall, and mortals will see that they cannot be held to account for their faith. On that day, mortals will put faith aside. And the gods will bring vengeance upon them all."

And after they brought vengeance upon the people there wouldn't be anyone left to worship them, leading to their eventual death. It was not her fight. She had noting to do with the contract between gods and men.

"You could have stopped me long before this, but you didn't," Aneele replied hoarsely.

"You have seen Myrkul, and heard his twisted words. Can you not guess my reason for yourself?" The god asked gesturing at the place in the Wall where her soul was. Aneele kept staring at the brick that was her face.

"Because you _know_ Myrkul's curse was unjust." She had thought long and hard since her prolonged discussion with Myrkul. "But if you simply undid it yourself, it would scream to all the planes that a _god's_ judgment had been overturned…"

"…and from that, I am forbidden," he finished for her. The plan and hope he had had all along. "But if a mortal undid the curse, it would mean that there had always been a way to end Akachi's suffering."

"You play _games_ , and the currency is the suffering of the innocent? If you have pride, at least answer for your actions!"

"Even the gods are bound by laws, Kaelyn."

His attention was back on the elf.

"As the heir of Akachi, you had the chance to set things right. To show the planes that _some_ justice - however cruel it may seem - is necessary to prevent the greater evil."

If he expected her to agree with him, he was in for a disappointment. She only shook her head.

"I'm not here to argue - I just want to end this curse."

Kelemvor paused. One as empty as her cared nothing for the planes, or the order. Furthermore, one who chose the worship that particular deity wouldn't care for order even with her soul intact.

"The Founder wanted too much to believe that Akachi's curse could be undone. Myrkul told her what she wished to hear… and that was only a part of the truth," he replied sadly – if gods could feel such an emotion – dashing her hopes for a quick healing.

"No, spirit-eater… tearing your soul from the Wall will not be enough. Myrkul's cruelties are not so easily undone. Akachi's hunger was born of loss – the loss of memory, soul, and self. He can only be freed from his hunger if he remembers who and what he is."

"How?"

"Take back what is yours from the Wall," he explained. "And then return to Akachi what is his. All that you need… you have already found in dreams."

"The fragments of the mask… are the fragments of Akachi, himself."

"Akachi's essence was scattered, not destroyed. If he had been utterly lost, nothing would remain to hunger. Myrkul was so enamored of his own cruelty that he couldn't see its flaws. Free your soul… bring the fragments together… and Akachi's hunger will end."

"I understand. Will you let me pass?"

He stepped out of her way, elaborate robes barely swaying with his movement.

"Know this, spirit-eater. I will not stand in your way now, but my memory is long, and all must come before me in the end. On that day, the debts of your Crusade will come due," there was a clear threat behind his words but Aneele cared not. When such time came he would have to take it up with her Lady. After all, her soul already had a designated place to go to.

"The Wall cannot persist, and even should we fail, the acts done here will serve as a beacon to others," Kaelyn spoke with fervor, while Aneele walked onwards. What did she mean by fail? She was here, her soul was here. As far as Aneele could see it, she was on the verge of success.

"And I warn you… the Wall does not willingly part with its treasures. Even if they are wrongfully won."

Kelemvor faded away into the streets of his city, and as the god was no more, two monstrous golems made of the same mold as the Wall lunged at the two women.

By the time Gann, Safiya and Okku reached them Aneele was deep in the dreamworld, and Kaelyn had leaned her against the wall of one of the nearby houses. The Silver Sword of Gith was embedded up to the hilt into the gray and green Wall next to an empty, human shaped spot.

Gann swiftly kneeled next to the elf and placed his palm on her forehead. As he feared she was deep into the dreamworld. So deep in fact, he wasn't sure if he could even follow her.

"What happened?" Safiya demanded. "Why haven't you joined us at the gates?"

Kaelyn arched a pale eyebrow.

"She insisted," she said, as if it explained all. Which it did. When Aneele insisted, you obeyed. Dove looked down at the girl. "She had pulled out her soul from the Wall," the cleric explained calmly. "But now she must fight Akachi for it."

Safiya paled. This was not how it was supposed to happen. They were to fight their way through the city – which they did, get the soul – which she did successfully, and leave.

The wizardess pressed her lips into a thin line. Typical, lying, dead gods.

She turned to Gannayev.

"How is she?"

"She is dreaming," he said in a shaking voice.

"Can we follow her?"

"Only if you are native to the dreamworld," he replied snappishly.

"Then what are you still doing here?" She pushed his head roughly so that he had to look up at her. "Get in there and help her!"


	16. Chapter 16

The place where he appeared was that of a Keep. This Crossroad Keep the warlock had mentioned when Aneele kept silent about it. Whatever opinion she had of it, the memory of the Keep had embedded itself deep into her soul. Whether she liked it or not, this place was a part of her.

He suspected she did not like this place, and the biggest clue were the bodies littering the grass and stones, and Reapers tearing the place apart.

Stealthily, blending in with the dream, he moved forward until he heard voices that did not include screaming. Up ahead he saw Aneele speaking with the Red Woman and the Boy. And it seemed he had arrived in the middle of their conversation.

"I tore my soul from the Wall. Why wasn't I freed from this curse?" He heard Aneele ask.

"Myrkul lied, and the Founder believed. The spirit-eater isn't so easily cast out," the Boy replied. "The Faceless Man will cling to your soul, devour you from within. Unless he is restored, or defeated in this dream."

"To restore him to what he was… that would save you _both_. Each fragment is an essence… mine or the Boy's. And the final fragment, the one you found in the Wall… that fragment is _his_. As long as you possess all three, he will _fear_ you."

"His hunger is scattered, feeding at will…" the Boy said gesturing at the Reapers killing off people from her memories, "manifested in this dream as hooded mockeries of the priest he once was."

"You must destroy them, and chase down the Faceless Man. Corner him, in a place where he cannot run. And we will _be_ there at the end… to make him _whole_ again," the Red Woman finished and the elf nodded. It was a sound plan. One thing was left.

"One question," Aneele jerked her thumb in the direction where Gann was hiding. "What is he doing here?"

He choked, whether at her callousness or because she had sensed him, but he stepped out from the shadows. The dreamwalker consoled himself with the fact that this was her dream and that she should be able to sense him.

It stung still.

"You're quite welcome, my polite and kind leader," he said with a mockery of a smile. "I will quite happily jump into the jaws of death and utter oblivion next time as well," Gann recited, insulted. He looked like he was about to snap the magically strengthened spear in his hands.

Aneele cocked her head.

"You weren't chewing on some hallucinatory herbs before coming here, have you?"

This could have very well been the straw to break the hagspawn's back, as it were. Gann's entirely short fuse – made all the shorter by her callous behavior – was burning down faster than a fire-cracker.

He stood very close to her, practically leaning over her smaller frame.

"If there were an exit from the empty mind of yours, rest assured that I would take it immediately."

Aneele was unfazed and it was that which drove him insane.

"If such are your sentiments then be certain that I would provide you with a way out if I could."

He pulled back immediately. Better he doesn't say or think anything or else he might make this dream even more warped than it already was. He stiffly moved past her and glared at the Safiya look-alike. He had an unhealthy sense of having been through this. Repeatedly.

"Whatever you may think, I am here to ensure that you remove your curse safely, as I have promised. Now, let us deal with Akachi and be done with it. I will certainly not stay long in a place where I'm not wanted."

"Well," Aneele said still looking at him, "you've heard him. What must I do?"

"You will see _memories_ in this place, too. Faces you loved… or hated, perhaps. Just as I am a remnant of Akachi, they are expressions of your soul. Lose them, and a part of you dies." The Red Woman and the Boy started to fade away.

"I promise you… I will find you again, before the end…" with urgency in her voice she added. "Make haste - with every moment that passes, more of your soul is being lost to the hunger!"

Aneele looked around at already many bodies scattered around. She recognized Bevil's among several and shrugged. It was no great loss.

"Well," she said as the Silver Sword manifested in her hand making Gann wonder if it had disappeared from the Wall where he had last seen it, "you wanted the first hand intimate experience within me. Come on."

The phrase so casually made and delivered made him trip on non-existent roots. It also did wonders to turn his anger into confusion. She did that a lot, although he was determined to endure in his righteous fury this time. He had a very good reason to.

"I did no such thing," he said calmly watching her as she let the Reaper attack and kill most of the people present before she made any move to eliminate them. He had seen a dwarf and what appeared to be a tiefling fall down, followed by the ranger from the Wall and a knight.

"And pardon my ignorance, but are you not supposed to keep your memories safe," he gestured at the elf dressed in mage robes scream and disappear.

"White lies do not help when you're in my head Gann," she answered as she cut down the Reaper just finishing a red-haired girl. "And sometimes it is better to start over with a clean slate." She turned to look at him. "I will remember them but they will mean little to me. And that is for the best, for I have meant even less to them."

For the unknown time Gann wondered what made her so bitter about her past, because here, close to her soul he could clearly recognize it as what it was. Pure, unchanged, bitterness.

As they proceeded further into her soul they passed from the Keep to her home village, not the most impressive of places, and Aneele pointed him out which memories were to be preserved. Jerro was one of them, the other was a half-elf who had the markings of a warrior dressed as an innkeeper – a wired fellow if he ever saw one.

And she had taken an especially long time to deal with the Reaper who was in the process of erasing an elven archer from her memories. To him it seemed that she wanted to end him completely.

He was stunned with the number of faces he had seen in her memories. She was, after all, very young for an elf.

"What have these people done to you that you would wish to forget them?" He phrased his question finally.

"Nothing too terrible," she said quietly. "They just wanted me to be something I couldn't."

"And that is a reason enough to forget them?" He asked softly.

"Perhaps not. But I will not hate them either."

He understood.

Were she to go home after this and meet them, her bitterness might have grown to hate at people who deserted her. This way she might not welcome them with open arms but at least she won't bring down that terrible scythe upon them either.

"Well I, for one, must say I am a bit disappointed," Gann said, stroking his chin. Ahead of him Aneele pulled out her silver sword from a particularly nasty Reaper who refused to stay down.

"Of?"

"Of all those who had made an impression on you. Yet our little company is nowhere to be seen. Even the man from the Wall is here while there is no sign of… your favorite stuffed toy."

"I would have figured you to be a bit smarter than that," Aneele said removing her eye patch. Beneath, the visible part of her skull shone bright in the dim light, as if someone had recently polished it. A morbid thought, Gann grimaced.

"If you're going to insult my intelligence explain yourself at least."

"During our travels together I had no soul. What precisely did you hope you could make an impact on, dreamwalker?"

When she said it that way, it was indeed foolish of him to presume anything. She reached her hand under his chin and made him look at her.

"Whatever your feelings for me may be, I have none for you. I know you when I don't feel you, and you do not know me."

"That is hardly true! I saw-"

"-memories of what I was. I do not know what I will be. I am a spirit-eater now." She placed her eye patch back on her face and pointed at the portal floating above the village green. "Now come along if you wish. I have a parasite to deal with."

So he followed. He had promised her he would.

Before they reached the portal, the Red Woman followed by the Boy appeared, out of nothingness it seemed.

"Ele'ena... wait," Safiya's twin called. "You have cornered the Faceless Man… in the deepest recesses of your soul. He has nowhere left to run."

Gann thought that was a good thing to hear.

"We promised we would be here at the end… and so we are."

Aneele paused and tightened the grip on her sword.

"You and the Boy…" she started, "you _are_ Akachi. What remains of him."

Two memories, as it turned out, looked at each other before the Boy nodded.

"In our way… we are a remnant of what Akachi _was_. Not just memories of his brother and his love, but pieces of his mind."

"We are _all_ that survives of him," the Red Woman spoke sadly. "And we have tried… to help you, to guide you… when we could. Though we know that we have done little, in truth."

"Ah," Gann sighed in realization. "There was an echo in these dreams, but I did not realize their source… they all spring from Akachi, or once did."

"But just as a single recollection can spark a far greater memory… so _we_ can restore most of what he was."

"You'll help me restore Akachi to what he was… and end this curse?" Aneele asked. If it was true then it meant this would all soon be over. She glanced over at Gann who looked at her and nodded with a small smile.

"He's forgotten us… forgotten what he was. But you've gathered his essence, in the fragments of the mask. And now… it's whole again." As the Boy spoke, she realized that his words were true. The fragmented mask had somehow joined together into one piece - a single mask that contained all that the Betrayer once was.

"Just as the fragments have been made whole… so must his scattered pieces. We are willing, but the Faceless Man is not."

"He's waiting for you… beyond the portal. If you can defeat him there, make him yield… then you can make him _remember_ what he was."

"He will no longer be empty. And his hunger will end."

The Boy's and Red Woman's voices altered in between as they tried to explain what Akachi had become, and how to overcome him.

"Anything else?" The elf asked as she removed her eye patch and put on the great many-eyed mask.

"The Faceless Man will try to slay you, or devour your spirit. If you wear the mask, it will provide some protection from his hunger."

"Use your own hunger against him, if you can. In the depths of your soul, your powers will be without limit… and you may call upon them as often as you wish."

"We can't face him… not while he's strong, or he'll scatter us like smoke, and his hunger will grow stronger, still."

"But when he falls… we'll be at your side, to _finish_ this. Farewell, Ele'ena…"

And the two disappeared even before their voiced stopped their echo.

Aneele rolled her shoulders lightly and took a step forward before pausing. She turned to regard Gann in all his dreamlike glory. Her scrutiny lasted so long that it began to irk him slightly.

"If we were not standing amidst the corpses of your memories, and fighting the plague of your soul, I'd be flattered that you've finally taken notice of me-" With the speed of lightning he caught her bony hand before she could yet again do her little trick and push him out.

Behind her mask the elf huffed. Silently she cursed dreamwalkers and their perceptiveness when in dreams.

"Not this time, Aneele," he said seriously. "You will not be rid of me so easily."

"Akachi has nothing to do with you."

"And the hags of the Coven had even less to do with you yet you denied me that battle. You will not do so this time."

Aneele shrugged.

"If you have such great desire to die," she said and turned to the portal but then noticed that he was still holding her hand. She looked at their joined fingers and then back at him. "I'll need that hand," she added flatly. With a start, he let her go.

"You make me so furious sometimes," he said, quietly rubbing his eyes.

Unfazed she pulled out the Silver Sword of Gith and looked at its shiny, almost dreamlike, blade.

"Really? I thought I did that all the time. I know I tried my hardest to."

With a start he looked up, eyes blazing.

"Wait! You were doing it on purpose?!"

But his voice faded away because Aneele had already passed through the portal into that place, the very bottom of her soul where the drums were always present. Deafening even. And the sound of drums was coming from _him_.

Akachi the Betrayer. The _Hunger_ that made its home in her walking corpse.

She had gotten used to drums. She'd even freely admit that she might come to miss them even. But in situations where one had little contact to one's emotions, reason ruled. And reason told her it was either Akachi or _her_.

"They no longer attack us," Okku said after making sure the hagspawn did not fall on his face while dreamwalking, and settled himself to watch the street. Indeed, there were no knights or priests, not even to ensure the would-be crusaders did not cause any more destruction.

"Our fight with them is over Okku. We have what we want," Safiya said, setting her staff against the wall. "Or we will, once they finally awake."

"For now perhaps," Kaelyn said quietly, but more to herself.

"Yes, well," Safiya sighed. "At the present time, saving one soul is enough."

Kaelyn mayhap did not agree, but Safiya was adamant. They have come to this plane to remove Akachi's curse and restore Aneele's soul. Little else beyond that mattered.

Okku sniffed the air and approached the unconscious elf and hagspawn. Again he took a deep whiff and looked at two women locked in a silent struggle against each other.

"We have a problem."

She ducked, avoiding the great blade by a hair's breadth before she pulled back and brought her sword down in a low thrust. Her small size was an advantage in this fight, as she could maneuver easily around the pale shape that was the Faceless Man. It was the size of the Silver Blade that made things difficult for her. In the end, Aneele did not have much experience wielding that thing. In this battle she would have to make do and it could prove fatal.

Gann had to stay behind, or in the worst case, keep the two miniature incarnations of Akachi busy. Usually an expert at summoning spirits and binding elementals, Gannayev quickly found out that he could not apply that method here. He was in a girls' very soul and none of his summons could reach this place. Instead he was reduced to supporting her in any other way he knew how.

"His armor is soaked with blood. He's bleeding badly," Kaelyn said as she hurriedly used her magic to heal the wound. Whatever damage he sustained in the dream, it manifested on his body as well, and right now his chest had sustained more then a few deep gashes.

"Then keep healing him up," Safiya retorted quickly, as she used her collection of healing scrolls on the elf girl. Blotches of red would appear, to her eyes, randomly across her body, and the wizardess relentlessly tended to each and every one. But neither her nor Kaelyn had unlimited amounts of healing items on them and they both knew this could only end badly if Aneele did not hurry. "Gods know she needs all the help she can get now."

"I do not know how much more his body can take," the cleric reasoned watching blood trickle from the corner of the hagspawn's mouth. "The wounds appear faster then the body can recuperate."

Safiya threw a glare composed of mixed emotions at the dreamwalker.

"For his sake, I hope he survives this."

Otherwise dark things might be in store for his soul, and the Wall would be the least of his worries.

"Kindly keep out of the way," Aneele said, releasing Gann's arm and not looking away from the spinning blade. She had pulled him from under Akachi's falling scythe just in time to prevent him from loosing his head.

He wiped the blood coming down from the corner of his mouth.

"Thank you," he coughed, and took a deep breath. This time it was too close for his comfort. And worse was yet to come. He did not see any visible wounds that either he or Aneele had inflicted on him. He was starting to believe the dead god's words when he said that you couldn't kill 'nothing'.

"If you cannot go on, then stay back," she snapped, standing up in front of him, her harsh words in contradiction to her protective stance. There was tiredness in her limbs, along with torn flesh and broken bones. A warlock could draw on their magic indefinitely but that didn't mean they could keep up with their endless source forever.

"And what of you?" He caught her arm and squeezed her bones so tightly she was forced to look at him. "You need healing," he insisted. "You'll collapse if you continue like this."

Behind her mask her remaining red eye was narrowed, and here, close to her soul, it cracked with more emotions than he had ever seen before. And most of them were negative. She shook her hand free from his grasp and started to gather the _Hunger_ around herself. The same power she had gained from devouring Myrkul.

"Can you slow him down?" She asked, her attention fully restored on the pale creature before her. The Faceless Man hissed and screeched and summoned again two lesser forms of him.

Gann quickly scanned the repertoire of his few remaining spells. There wasn't much but…

"Yes… I believe I can."

"Then do so," she said before her face disappeared behind the shapelessness of the Ravaging Hunger.

She could kiss and curse that demented skull for inflicting this upon her. She'd decide which would be more appropriate if she survived.

"You foolish little creature!" Kaelyn's voice broke through the empty streets, and both Safiya and Okku looked up.

"What is it?" She asked, leaning over the two sleeping bodies. For the past few minutes there were no sign of more injuries, but their bodies still had to endure the lingering pain of the recently healed ones.

"She is using it again!" The cleric pointed at the elf girl. And sure enough, her face might not have changed shape but it had turned pale to the point of being white. The aura around her darkened and her scythe, Myrkul's Wrath, glowed in both rage and rapture.

Safiya frowned worriedly, but she was of a different opinion. Aneele had proven she could handle much.

"The struggle must be more difficult than she had expected, if she had to resort to that."

"Myrkul's soul is pure corruption. Whatever power she has gained from devouring it will only harm her tenfold." Dove looked back at the gray elf. "Nothing good can come of it."

"Wizardess," Okku rumbled, touching the sleeping girl lightly with his nose. "She has stilled."

The Faceless Man collapsed before her, even as she collapsed before him. This battle had depleted them both of life. She could sense her body lying unconscious on the Fugue Plane… and feel the hunger ebbing, the dark _presence_ growing weak...

Broken and bound, she could see the Faceless Man for what he was… empty and confused… enslaved to a hunger that he did not understand, yet could not deny.

In this dream, pillars rose about him… extensions of her will and stubbornness, which had conquered the very hunger of the Wall. The Faceless Man was shackled, helpless. His fate was hers to decide.

Tiredly, Aneele took off the mask she was wearing, the mask that was all the Betrayer once was, and concentrated, calling forth the Red Woman and the Boy. She focused her will upon the mask, seeking those memories which were not hers, allowing them to drift into her conscious mind…

…and suddenly, they took shape, seeming somehow _more_ than they have been before.

The Red Woman, standing on one end of the makeshift prison, stepped forward and spoke,

"You have _pursued_ us, Faceless Man, and we have hidden. In your hunger and pain, you have forgotten what you are, but _we_ remember. We _always_ remembered."

The Boy, who stood on the other side, also stepped forward,

"You are Akachi, my brother, who gave me my name…"

Aneele handed over the many-eyed mask to the woman who made her way in front of the faceless man. She only glanced at the beaten elf and did not stop but her eyes expressed much. She was grateful for this.

"You are Akachi, my beloved, who kindled love in a heart that held none…" she said softly, as the Boy joined her. "And you are Akachi the Betrayer, who turned against your god for that love… and died in the Wall, in my stead."

With reverence she placed the mask on his face and a sound akin to a sigh broke around them.

" _Remember_ , my love… and be _whole_ again."

A blazing light and a strong gust of wind knocked down those present, and by the time Gann opened his eyes, the spirits had disappeared, and the desert surrounding them was empty and dark. Just another dreamscape in a dreamer's soul.

But something had changed. He could feel it in the very fabric of the dreams. And he wasn't sure what to think of the change.

The elf pulled herself up from where she was sitting with sluggish motions. She looked tired beyond description.

"Aneele…?" He called quietly, reaching for the girl standing next to him. She didn't look up but rather held her hand over the large scar where her heart was.

"I feel…"

It was all she could manage before the world of dreams collapsed around them, tearing two minds apart.

But as Gannayev stood up from his kneeling position next to the girl and as Kelemvor spoke above them, the former Knight-Captain did not wake up.


	17. Chapter 17

"How is she?" Gann asked stepping out in the hallway.

Ten days ago, when they've appeared before the gates of Mulsantir in the late evening, they have taken the unconscious girl to Magda's theater with whom Safiya had previously made arrangements.

Ten days it had been since Aneele's victory in Fugue Plane and had regained her soul. Ten days since she had yet to show any sign of awareness. And neither Sheva nor Darovik, a local priest of Kelemvor, knew when she would wake up, or even, if at all.

She was skin and bone in the worst sense of the word possible, and it came as a surprise to any healer just how was she capable to move at all let alone fight a creature such as the Faceless Man. They have managed to stabilize her state with herbs and spells but unless she woke up to take some substance soon noting short of resurrection would help her. They were left with nothing more than vague hope that Aneele's stubbornness would prevail.

Karlyn had decided not to return with them. All for the better in both of Safiya and Gann's opinion. Soulless Aneele did not share celestial's views and they doubted that Aneele with a soul would either.

The celestial would continue with her Crusade, and as she had learned, there were many allies to be found if not to be trusted. She had said that even as her black eyes rested on the powerful silver blade, the same one that granted Akachi his many victories.

But none of elf's remaining companions would have any of that. In the end, of she wanted this weapon Kaelyn would have to speak with Aneele directly. A thing impossible at that time.

Safiya had stepped out of Lienna's room where Magda had allowed for the elf girl to rest.

"Asleep. Her state is unchanged. I wish she would wake up. It has been nearly a ten-day and she is yet to stir." She looked at the dreamwalker before continuing reluctantly, "Have you, by any chance, noticed something?"

The hagspawn arched a pale eyebrow in almost insulted expression.

"If you are implying that I would have invaded the dreams of our exhausted leader-"

"It wouldn't be the first time," Safiya scoffed. She appeared annoyed that her simple dress, given to her by Magda, had no wide sleeves where she could hide her worrying hands in. She wished she had her staff now. Or some parchment. Anything that she could tear into oblivion.

"True. But I never thought I'd live to see the day where you ask me to do so."

"Neither did I, but I have little else to lean on now."

Gann looked at her with an expression rare for him – one full of sympathy.

"She sleeps deeply and does not dream."

That made her frown a little. People dreaming and not remembering their dreams she knew could happen, but to be asleep so deeply not to dream at all?

"Is it that bad?"

"Not necessarily, no. She had not slept for over three months and had no soul. She is resting still, I think." He looked down at her. "She is alive and recovering and that is all I could sense," he said but he said it for himself as much as he did for her.

Aneele wasn't only waking up, she wasn't reacting to his presence in dreams at all, her dreamer's heart fast asleep. And the bond forged between them had dwindled away to almost nothing, even the thick colourful one with Okku. He was, in fact, very worried that all the bonds will have to be remade from nothing once more.

Both he and the wizardess had concerns that Aneele will not be the same person once she wakes up, and while Safiya, experienced with soul manipulation had expected this fully and had in fact expected things to go for the better, it was a far less pleasing prospect for the dreamwalker.

"Where is Okku?" She asked after a moment of silence.

"About," Gann replied. "With spirits and shamans, but he stays close by. He too wishes to know," he looked at closed door of Lienna's room, "if she would come back."

Safiya took him under arm and guided him away from the room.

"Don't we all?"

She waited until voices disappeared from the hallway before moving, or making any sound of her own.

If she were to count the time with tears falling from her eyes she might have know for how long she had been awake. She didn't though. She kept either staring at the dark window or buried what had remained of her face in the pillow drenching it with salted water.

It was a reflex. She didn't have anything to be sad about really, and much to rejoice – unless these were the tears of happiness, unlikely as it may seem.

She had prevailed over the curse. Survived. Had her soul back. And while it was somewhat tattered it was all she had, and she could feel again.

And she felt wretched.

The elf shifted her head against the pillow and brought one hand to her face. Her bone arm had a dull gleam in the night.

Much was lost too, she remembered.

Letting her single eye shift into darkvision she sat up in her bed pushing the heavy covers away. She was in Lienna's room, that much she knew. And she knew the layout of the room, spending much time crafting many items here.

Sliding her thin legs over the edge of the bed she staggered to her feet. She felt very weak and feared that her legs wouldn't support her weight. But stubbornness prevailed and she pressed on, one foot in front of another.

Holding onto the furniture she walked over to small table where a rough mirror stood. Quickly, before falling down, she sat on the chair and took a deep breath. Her chest hurt. It had hurt before but she chose to ignore it, she could ignore it then. She imagined it would hurt a lot from now on.

She touched the heavy and sturdy leather of her eye patch. They hadn't removed it when they've brought her here. And why should they? She might have looked all the more like a lifeless body.

Taking a deep breath she slowly started to remove it and paused for only a moment before taking it off completely.

She already knew what she would see, as she had seen it countless times in the past months. It was not a pleasant sight to behold, ash and pink and ivory, and thin scar-like cracks over the bridge of her nose. It made something twist inside her but the feeling was fleeting and was gone almost immediately.

She touched the pink flesh clinging to skull but didn't feel anything and when she looked down to see why she saw her boney arm. She flexed her fingers wondering just how was she able to move them, though it didn't surprise her that she couldn't feel anything with it.

Aneele looked back up in the mirror again. The sight of her own visage bothered her, and yet it didn't. The conflicting emotions of her own acceptance and her inborn worry of what others might think made her head hurt and her heart thump loudly.

Was acceptance setting in already? Or had she accepted how life will be for her from now on the moment she had awoken in that barrow? She didn't think it was good to have so many questions this early.

For the first time in long while her stomach gave of life with a long, deep growl. When was the last time she had tasted food? Surely it had to be that meal before the battle with the King of Shadows. And if she recalled correctly, she didn't eat much of it because of how nervous she was.

That was too long if anyone asked her.

Aneele looked around the room. She knew she was in the Veil theatre already. And, well, theatre or an inn it had to have a pantry.

She placed the eye patch back on her face and climbed back on her feet sluggishly. With shaking hands she also grabbed and pulled on a nearby tunic, at the moment it might have as well been a dress, before heading out of the room.

Wooden floor was cold but she was grateful to feel anything at all. And like any living creature she followed her nose to where the food was kept, and luckily she didn't have to climb any stairs to get to it, nor did she encounter anyone on her way to her prey.

Dry and fresh meet, bread, cheese, there was even some wine as well. Her mouth watered and her stomach signaled that food was there to be eaten and not only looked at.

Now, she needed a plate, a cup and a book. For some reason she had an urge to read something that did not involve the First Crusade.

First scream was invoked by an angry dwarf look-alike woman who cursed the gods and the spirits and unsuspecting pantry raiders who prayed on the weak. She might have meant rats at first.

The second scream was made by the same plump dwarf woman and had mentioned something about undead haunting her kitchen. Aneele guessed well that both hysterical voiceovers had something to do with her, since she was the only one around looking like a wraith with a bony arm stuck in a sweet pie.

Third scream however, was promptly followed by choking noise made by Aneele herself when a blur of 'something' hugged her and proceeded to check her health by yanking her head left and right. And how that could say anything about her state of health she had no idea.

And before she managed to say anything that would convince the woman that she was indeed all right, Safiya was already giving Kaji instructions on the most effective ways to wake up the bear god and the beauty sleep requiring hagspawn. Aneele felt like pouting. Or cringing. This amount of attention was unnecessary.

"When… How long are you awake?" Safiya asked finally taking a seat next to the girl.

Aneele looked at the woman somewhat confused. She _knew_ Safiya was there to protect her, heal her, even taught her a few things. She _knew_ the wizardess had supported most of her decisions and was worried terribly for her – now, she wasn't sure how she knew _that one_ but she was certain of it nonetheless. The problem Aneele now faced was that looking at Safiya she felt no emotions connected to her beyond the obligatory gratitude.

What do you say to someone who sacrificed much for you?

"Since last night," she said quietly, and then added, "I think. I don't really know what time it is."

The answer was simple in theory - you try to fit in and reconnect with the rest of the world.

But it wasn't that which made Aneele stare at Safiya blankly. No, Aneele noticed that she was noticing things. Well, she noticed things before, they just weren't given priority then.

For the first time she had noticed the intricate details of wizardess' tattoo, the colour of her eyes, the way her movements were tampered with years of experience as a teacher, and how much that reminded her of Tarmas.

Safiya was wearing, for the lack of a better term, commoner's dress. A far cry from her lofty decorated red robes. Aneele decided the clothes probably belonged to Lienna, which would explain why it fit so well.

"We were waiting for days for you to wake up," Safiya sighed in relief, her eyes softening unexpectedly.

Aneele blinked and managed to blush a little even. They were?

"Sorry?" She offered feebly.

There was loud shuffling in the corridor which Aneele guessed must have come from just awoken actors. Heavy footsteps and morning rumbling indicated otherwise.

"The sun didn't even decide to rise yet, wizardess," Gann yawned walking into the small and crowded theatre kitchen. His eyes widened but remained fixed when he spotted the small elf sitting in a chair looking every inch a lost kitten. It was very much a change from the overwhelming presence the spirit-eater exuded. It gave him a very good reason to grin like a well sated cat – beside the obvious reason of seeing her awake finally.

"I had not thought of you as an early riser but I am glad to see you awake," he took a seat in the empty chair next to the girl and he glanced over the pile of empty plates and pantry door hanging slightly open, "and ravenous. Some things changed little I see."

Aneele was looking at him in a curious sort of way.

First thought she had when she first saw Gann after regaining her soul was 'blue'. As in, all shades of blue.

The second went along the lines of peacock – not necessarily in the bad manner but she'd leave that for a time when she's more awake and less aware of disheveled clothing.

While the final one went along the lines that he was grinning far too much for her liking.

"You keep looking at me as if you're seeing me for the first time," he chuckled. "Well, perhaps you do-" Safiya treated him with a light kick to his shin charged with something magical and unpleasant considering how he glared at her a moment later. The wizardess merely smiled sweetly in return, clearly signaling him to leave his antics for some later date.

Yes, she should have expected him to start their re-acquaintance like that, the elf thought disagreeably.

"No," Aneele said quietly. "You just remind me of highborn ladies of Neverwinter who were yanked out of bed far too early for their liking."

Gann pulled back with a sour expression on his face. He looked at Safiya.

"I could be mistaken but I was certain we managed to retrieve her soul from that moldy Wall."

It was Aneele's turn to scowl now and Safiya's eyes lit up at the elf finally displaying emotions.

"I believe we have."

"Then why does she mock me still?"

"Perhaps because she shows some sense," the bear god rumbled, his large head next to the elf's shoulder. "How are you faring, little one?" Okku asked letting the elf run her fingers through his thick, colourful fur.

"Everyone keeps asking me that," Aneele said managing a small unintentional smile. If his lavish fur had attracted her attention before, now it mesmerized it her completely. So much so that expression of pure wonder and amazement spread across her face.

"Oh yes, things changed very little," Gann commented quietly.

Piece of dried fruit landed on his head and bounced off. Gann tossed his head back and groaned in painful setback, for he hardly considered it a defeat. Safiya chuckled. Okku rumbled. And Aneele scowled.

All was well with the world again.

"It is good to have you back and on the recovery road," Safiya said nodding. "We should call Sheva once day breaks to see to your health," she suggested and Aneele nodded though she couldn't say she was thrilled by it. That slap wasn't one of her better memories as far as the old witch was concerned.

"You should probably go back to bed and get some rest before she arrives."

"Back to bed?" Gann questioned surprised and gestured at the elf, "She just got out of it."

Safiya looked at him down her nose. A look patented by a professor holding lecture to one of her more unruly students.

"Yes, and now she must return to it to rest and preserve her strength."

The two locked eyes - each having their own opinion and neither backing away from it.

"Which she had done for the past ten days," the hagspawn countered. "Come now wizardess, can't you be glad for her to be awake again?"

Safiya stood up, her chair making a nasty screeching sound along the floor. Aneele flinched.

"I am. And I will be even gladder once she recovers in full."

"And what would you have her do? Make her lie in bed and be stuffed like some piglet?" Gann said calmly. "Food and rest alone will not make her body strong again."

"But it will give her enough strength to move again," Safiya countered her eyes narrowed. "Or will you tell me that fever had never chained you to a bed before?"

"It did. However I knew that once I was out of that bed it meant that I was recovering."

Aneele looked first at one then the other, shrinking more into herself as each stabbing comment was tossed between the two. And most involved what they assumed was best for her. She had her soul back, has woken up and ate normal food even. She was doing better. She was recovering, albeit slowly. Did they lack eyes to see that?

It gnawed on her, the way they were ignoring her, or what she thought passed for ignoring, as it had been done many times in Crossroad Keep.

Aneele felt her eldritch powers stir in the pit of her stomach, like a stew on a bad cooking day, and hellfire race through her veins.

The book slammed on the table and the wood whined under its force.

"I am not an _INVALID!_ " Her voice rose above their squabble and for a moment, white-hot fire laced through the room. Once the light had dimmed her fingers clutched the leather cover and her shoulders were shaking, and behind her two imps the size of Kaji fluttered in midair. Under her gray-white hair her single eye glazed with intense emotions. When she spoke her voice shuddered with barely contained anger.

"So I'd appreciate if you'd stop treating me as one."

With a hand as steady as she could she gestured at the summons and they quickly picked up a book and a half-filled plate. She took a deep breath before backing away sluggishly.

"I will… do as you say Safiya, and return to the bed." Shakily she walked back down the hall and back to Lienna's room, fully ignoring the stunned faces of her once companions.

Sighing Safiya leaned back and rubbed her forehead.

"Amidst the whole spirit-eater business it had slipped my mind that Aneele is a warlock. Their temper is legendary and easily fuelled by their infernal heritage," she explained further seeing Gann's obviously blank expression.

"Infernal heritage?" He repeated slowly. Safiya chuckled and poured some wine to them both. There was still some time till dawn and the wizareds had every intention to use it to impart some knowledge on thickheaded hagspawn.

Safiya raised a glass smiling. This was a good cause for small celebration. Aneele was awake and had even managed to get angry within the first night. Her soul was successfully back where it should be.

Thus begun Aneele's long road to recovery, fraught with perils, red wizards, masked witches, slightly insane dwarves and blue hagspawns.


	18. Chapter 18

First days that followed Aneele's awakening were not kind to anyone, as the reconnection of the soul had the unfortunate consequence of combining an overemotional adolescent with the powers of a warlock who walked the planes.

At first she was displaying confusion, mostly where her surroundings and people who interacted with her were concerned. It was as if she was trying to remember how exactly one talks with someone.

Next to confusion her most frequent emotion was anger.

In fact, Aneele's mood swings ranged from confusion, anger, demolition, sorrow and more often than not, apathy. And any of the more active emotions was undeniably followed by a flurry of invocations.

It went so far that she had actually summoned a pit fiend on the stage when one of the actors, Vesper the genasi, complained that the costume of a devil didn't look _real_ enough.

Not the smartest thing she had ever done.

And it was not something anyone had expected from the calm and calculating Aneele who stubbornly searched Rashemen and Thay, high and low for the cure. No one, except for Safiya perhaps.

She, coming from the Academy where souls were commonly extracted, split, recombined and replaced and had ample experience with soul binding, extraction and reconnection during her extensive studies, saw the entire thing as an interesting experiment unravelling before her.

"It is a simple matter really," she said in the afternoon after they have disposed of unwanted guest from hells – with great efficiency and minimum damage to the stage. "Two halves of who she is are having trouble reconnecting."

When that simple explanation didn't make the light dawn at males present she sighed, dusted off her dress, which she found to be very comfortable, and tried again.

"Once her soul was sent to the Wall it had stayed at whatever emotional growth it was at the time. For over three months it had remained in stasis, unchanged."

"I was under impression that the Wall destroyed souls," Gann remarked. He would hardly ever forget the voices of those trapped within the mossy Wall or the way that man disappeared before his eyes.

"If you are dead, yes. Aneele wasn't and it merely held onto her soul," she continued with her expert explanation rubbing one of the rings on her fingers. Almost instantly and with minimum pyrotechnic involved, a large black leather bag appeared before her feet.

"The problem now lies that Aneele is no longer who she was, say, four months ago. Her emotions compel her to act in a certain way that is in complete opposite to her newly adopted thought process."

"And for us who lacked the fortune to grow up in famous Thayan Academy that would mean…"

"She needs to find herself anew, just as she had done when she had become a spirit-eater." The wizardess picked up the bag and straightening her dress said in what was a distinguishingly teacher's voice, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have one raging girl to calm." And with that she sauntered out of the room with purpose in her mind.

"I do not pretend to understand two-legged creatures, but shouldn't that be your duty hagspawn?" Okku rumbled in his distinctive bearish tone. He still held in his paws remnant of the recent battle – a large and curved, if slightly chipped horn.

"As if Safiya were to let me anywhere near her," he replied. He was considering deeply everything that wizardess had just said. Even Okku understood that this was another hurdle on Aneele's road to recovery, and now with her soul safe it looked like this would present an even greater challenge for her. Before there was a threat of dying, now she could simply stay half mad.

"And you let the Red Wizard order you like she would that little bat of hers?" He wondered if the horn would look well in his barrow among other trophies he had gathered over centuries. He finally decided against it and with a swing of his paw tossed it somewhere behind him.

"It is not matter of letting," he flashed Okku a smile worthy of one hated by girls' fathers everywhere, "as of patience."

There were always nights and dreams.

Aneele threw her hands over her head letting several sparkling essences and a complete necklace fly to the carpeted floor of the room with a muffled thud. With a moan of frustration and utter defeat she clunked her head against the hard surface of the crafting table.

She felt, shocking really, like hitting her head against something unbreakable. Preferably until her skull cracked so some sense could get in because at the moment she seriously lacked any.

What could have possibly in seven of nine hells posses her to summon a pit fiend in the middle of the theater?

Pure idiotism?

Some internal need to punish herself by causing overall chaos to all who surround her?

Most likely, it was just Ele'ena coming back into her own.

Aneele muttered a vile cuss under her breath.

She shouldn't have taken interest in what the actors were doing backstage. She shouldn't have been taken by all the pretty costumes. And she really shouldn't have summoned a baatezu to make a point when she was only on chapter three of Jerro's guide to ultimate summoning.

So many 'shouldn't-s' and too few 'should-s'.

It was a bother, she thought resting her chin across her folded arms, to have such a dual reaction on things around her. Her mind told her one thing while, and she cringed at the very though of it all, her heart danced to a different tune. The absurdity of it all.

Why did she stop being a spirit-eater again? Because life was certainly simpler when she didn't have to worry about that little thing called 'morality'. Except there was an issue of her soul being in the Wall and impending doom on the horizon. Survival before anything else – those were the words she lived by.

In her mind she had already calculated what she would do. Put some muscle on her bones – which was processing nicely she thought looking at her right arm. It was no longer so thin to put terror and pity in viewer's eyes.

Next was to get a grip of her shattered self and then move on with her life. That included her leaving the North and finding a nice place where she could settle down. With no responsibility attached. She no longer needed the title of 'Knight-Captain'.

Now, 'getting a grip' as it were, did not work well so far.

Often she had an urge to curl up in a corner of the room with pure fear overwhelming her – an urge she had indulged on more than one occasion. Other times it was all about anger and remembered with dull regret how she demolished Magda's kitchen utensils over something trivial.

Crying was another thing she did often and this was the only emotion she managed to contain until alone. The elf was unsure for the reason behind her tears and in truth there was none but the need remained. She did not wish for others to see her in such a pitiful state.

If she had to choose among many unpleasant things plaguing her, she would have to say that nightmares had to be the worst. Endless torrent of bad dreams rarely allowed for some rest and receipt for her mending mind.

And she could never remember what they were about. Oh, she had a pretty good idea what it was that frightened her so to wake up drenched with sweat or choking for air but her memory was wiped clean of images every time she would open her eye, leaving behind only a horrible feeling to linger until early hours of morning.

It was the realization that she couldn't do anything about them that hit her hard.

Her ability to dreamwalk was gone. Just as suddenly as she had gained it. Such helplessness where once she could do, walk and dream of whatever would strike her fancy made the nights all the more frightening.

And she refused to tell Gann. Such loss would disappoint him somehow. He wouldn't say so but she knew him well enough. The hagspawn took great pride and enjoyment in their few shared dreams together. He preferred people who could dreamwalk to those who could not.

She shook her head rubbing her face against the material if her tunic.

Aneele kept telling herself that she was an elf, and once her mind returned to relative normality she would reverie as she once did. Dreams, as such would be obsolete. And anyway, elves had no business dreaming in the first place, let alone frolicking through dreams of others. She would be fine once she healed.

But no matter what lies she fed herself with she could not deny the feeling of loss. Dreamwalking was do addictive it was no wonder Gann preferred it to waking state.

Aneele covered her head with her arms.

Another topic she had no interest in thinking about just yet.

There was a knock on the door and Aneele peered from under the sleeves of her tunic.

"It's open," her voice was muffled under all that fabric but the door opened and Safiya walked in possibly without even hearing the invitation first.

She critically surveyed the messy state the room was in, essences and crafting material littering the floor along with used scrolls and recipe books. From the corner of her eye she caught the sight of Aneele's favored weaponry.

Leaning against the wooden table were the sword of Gith and, wrapped tightly, Myrkul's Wrath. Even so Safiya could feel malicious energies steaming from it. That thing wished a most excruciatingly painful death upon everyone in the room and then some, but the greatest portion of its hate and raw anger was directed towards the small elf that looked particularly oblivious to sentient weapon glaring proverbial daggers at her.

"I wish you'd dismantle that thing," the wizardess said closing the door behind her.

"At least this way he's useful," Aneele said not looking up. Perhaps not so oblivious.

Changing the subject – because Aneele was not to be deterred from her decision to keep this vengeful weapon - the wizardess asked a general question stepping up next to her.

"How are you feeling?"

Aneele gave in to groan.

Pit Fiend. Earlier. On stage.

She buried her face in shame.

Safiya, the ever perceptive teacher, immediately picked up the source of elf's current distress. She would likely need a guide book for all the others.

"It is not as if it had time to do any real damage," she said curtly moving the junk from the crafting table with a wave of her hand so she could place her large black leather bag on it.

Aneele groaned again.

"It was not supposed to there in the first place."

"In that case, the genasi had learned an important lesson of not asking a warlock stupid questions regarding demon esthetics," Safiya commented and noticed the discarded necklace lying on the thick carpet. She bent down to pick it up.

"Or I should learn to answer questions in a manner that involves more speaking and less showing."

"It is exactly what you would have done a month ago. Your latest creation," she gestured at the pendant.

"I didn't have a soul month ago." Aneele looked up and nodded. "Latest and useless."

"Soul or not it doesn't change the fact that you have learned not to suffer fools." She twirled the pendant in her fingers. Both the pendant and the necklace were done with skill of an experienced jeweler. In Safiya's humble opinion Aneele's hand-crafted items could easily fetch fortune even when not enchanted. "Why useless?"

"Fool or not, a pit fiend in the living room does not count as tact," Aneele's eye flashed with anger, this time at herself. Part of her was horrified at what she did, while her newly established thought process was clapping in glee.

Still, summoning something so large and dangerous over something so trivial was downright childish. She pulled back and leaned in her chair, then glanced at jewelry in Safiya's hand.

"The enchantment is non-existing. I can't seem to mold two or more essences as I did with-" the elf paused.

"With Akachi's help?" Safiya helpfully filled in for her. Aneele tried to look uncomfortable but failed.

"For all his drawbacks, he was quite useful to have around," Aneele took the necklace from Safiya's hand and tossed it into a pile on far side of the table before placing the remaining unspoiled essences back in the carved box. Things were abundantly clear; she would have to re-learn crafting from scratch. Or at least the part that involved crafting with multiple essences.

"It only means you will have to relay on more traditional methods to express your creativity," Safiya explained in that smooth tone that masked amusement. She would be worried about Aneele's regret of loosing the spirit-eating curse if she were not aware how uncomfortable the elf was feeling in her own skin now. Her regrets would fade in time, she hoped.

The Red Wizard started pulling out many different items from her ominously looking black leather bag. Aneele recognized a box with instruments similar to those she used in crafting but suspected these had a somewhat different purpose. There were also bottles with variety of different colored content, some of which had a sickeningly sweet sent.

And last, but not least, another ominously looking leather box but much smaller in size and square shaped.

Safiya presented the box to Aneele and opened it smiling in triumph. Aneele was speechless once she took a good look at the content of it. Her jaw quite literally dropped open.

"You didn't think that I would forget about this," the wizardess asked still smirking.

There, on the soft padding lay Hag's Eye, the very same Gulk'aush plucked from her head and handed it over to small elf. Now that she thought back to that event Aneele wondered how she didn't retch. She had always been of a squeamish sort. Empty stomach might have helped in not making a fool out of herself.

"…ah…" was the elf's smart reply.

"A perfect replacement," she placed the box on the desk and grinned in self-satisfaction. "Unless you prefer walking around with half of your skull revealed."

Aneele's hand flew to her eye-patch. She got so used to wearing it and seeing the world through one eye only she didn't question it anymore.

"Wouldn't it clash?" Aneele asked not really knowing why. "You know, red and blue." Stalling. That operation Safiya had in mind couldn't possibly be painless. And that would be another new thing she would have to get used to.

"Red goes well with everything. I should know," she stated it as a fact as the instrument box sprung open and light reflected on razor sharp and twisting instruments.

Aneele swallowed. Loudly and cowardly.

Oh yes, things were gradually going back to normal.

"Shouldn't we at least ask Gann for permission," she tried finally leaning back in her chair. Safiya's eyes reflected amusement, which was becoming a norm as of late, and confusion in equal parts.

"Now, why would we need that?"

"Well, it's his mother's eye… last memento… wouldn't it be strange to stick it into someone else's head? It's not like I'm going to be around for him to look at it- and stop smirking already!" Aneele's cheeks puffed out. No one took her seriously any more.

"You are going to be around long enough to recover properly. And that may take a while." There was a spark in Safiya's dark eyes that Aneele decided belonged to all who wore Red Robes. She had probably already talked to him about this. Bloody, meddlesome mages.

"I can still summon demons you know," the elf tried one last time.

"Perhaps, but I am more proficient in binding them." There was a quiet 'damn' and Safiya's smile widened. Yes, the reconnection with the soul was going well. Aneele just needed to find a way to balance between what she was and what she had become.

And Safiya, backed up with years of teaching experience and many lifetimes, had no doubt that the elf was heading in the right direction – minus the occasional summon form hells. But she had every confidence that the girl would pull through it. She was much too stubborn not to.

Strangely, she felt immense pride. As if her favorite student had finally mastered a difficult spell.

Aneele, on the other hand, was feeling suspicious of Safiya's expression. How couldn't she be? The wizardess had been nudging her in only her known direction form day one.

"Take your eye-patch off please," she said as she pulled her sleeves back and covered her hands with translucent sweet smelling liquid. "And pull your hair back."

With a sigh Aneele obeyed. She took her eye-patch off and tied her hair back revealing her scared face in full.

Her skull had a polished shine to it and flesh clinging to it was numb, not allowing her to feel much in that area. Aneele was in all honesty not bothered by it but she knew other people were. She herself didn't like the sight of undead and she imagined that she didn't look all that different from a decomposing zombie. She couldn't imagine her appearance would earn her a room in the inn or a safe pass through a town. Better be rid of it.

Safiya approached her carrying two vials and Aneele leaned back allowing the woman a better access.

"This is going to hurt, isn't it?" Aneele whispered.

"Only once all the nerves are reconnected and your muscles and skin start mending," Safiya answered and Aneele's hand twitched. She didn't remember having a high pain threshold. Or did that change as well?

"Do you wish for me to tend to your arm as well?" Safiya asked from above her.

Aneele was silent for a moment. Did she?

"No." Her bone fingers clicked against wood of chair making a hollow sound. "I like it like this." Safiya paused in her work to look at girl with narrowed eyes. Aneele shrugged. "I know..." she offered.

"I can accept that. Now hold still."

Aneele did, keeping her other eye closed. She could distantly feel Safiya using oils and potions, few of which she had to drink, and could even hear faint chanting before sensing instruments scraping against the bare bone. She knew that Safiya would make her skin grow over the bone somehow rather then using someone else's, for which she was very much grateful. She didn't know how the wizardess would accomplish this exactly and she was sure she was better off not knowing.

It made her feel a lot like a golem in the process of making. Aneele assumed that golem crafting and regular crafting had much similarities but she didn't understand a thing where crafting something that should move was concerned. Perhaps he could ask Safiya to explain it to her sometime. Gods knew they spent a lot of time together. Much more then she did with either the bear god or the hagspawn.

"I noticed you don't let Gann be alone in room with me," she said then as the thought popped in her mind.

"Do you want me to?" She asked picking up a bottle with narrow throat and dripping two drops on a needle like instrument. Where the subject of dreamwalker was concerned Safiya insisted that Aneele should be the one to question it further. There was a dense wall those two kept running into when trying to talk but Safiya was still not comfortable with letting him alone with her. Gannayev just had no concept of holding himself back when there was no threat under his throat.

"No. you probably have a good reason," Aneele sighed relaxing. That, whatever Safiya used, did wonders for her muscles. The wizardess pulled back and let out a small laugh. "What is it?" Aneele asked opening her red eye.

"You. You just sounded like your old self."

Which would be the only way Safiya knew her how to be.

"I suppose it's unavoidable," Aneele shrugged relaxing once more.

"You did it again."

Aneele's eye blazed as she glared at the woman.

"I'll do my best to crack jokes as soon as I'm able to."

Still smirking Safiya returned to her work. She was proficient enough to sleepwalk and perform a complex surgery at the same time.

"I'm sure you will, baatezu summoning and all."

"I'll learn to bind them properly, eventually."

"I have little doubt that you will."

There was silence for a while and the only sound was rustling of Safiya's dress, of which Aneele still couldn't get used to, and occasional chanting.

"Do you think I should apologize? About the pit fiend?" Aneele had to ask.

"Do you feel sorry?" Safiya asked in return. Aneele shifted in her chair.

"Uncomfortable. I don't think Magda appreciated it."

"Then apologize. But don't think that no good came out of it. They've made quite the convincing costume for the play."

"They are still planning to go on with that?"

There were whispers of a celebration.

The spirit-eater was no more and that was a day to be remembered and celebrated if only this one time. The spirits were likely to remember it much longer than humans could and they had no needs for such celebrations. But they had decided to throw a party – because in Aneele's opinion it really couldn't be anything else no matter what the Witches preached. And Magda had taken it upon herself to tell the tale of rise and fall of Akachi through her own words and for the world to see. Aneele hoped that somehow, somewhere the dwarf woman would be discouraged. Or disintegrated. It was all for naught.

"Absolutely. There will be great celebration soon and the play will be the center of it all." Safiya's voice lowered to a plotting whisper. "The hagspawn will be in it."

Aneele's red eye widened.

"He's going to play himself?" Safiya nodded with a little 'hmm'. "Must he fuel his ego so?!"

"He considers himself a man of many talents. Magda encourages him," the wizardess mock scoffed as she placed the Eye in the socket. With a little magic of her own it was a perfect fit. She carefully spread a flesh coloured powder across visible bone and whispered chants unfamiliar to Aneele's ear.

"Joy."

"You will attend of course?" Safiya pulled out white bandages and proceeded to wrap them around elf's head. Aneele scoffed, or tried to under all that material.

"I lived though it. I see little point in watching it unfold again."

"He'll be disappointed," Safiya stepped back to admire her work. She was very much satisfied with it. She will be even more satisfied once the bandages come off.

Aneele pointedly refused to have anything to do with it.

"The last time there was a celebration for one of the bigger things I have done, it was besieged by vampires, wraiths and immortal reavers. Thank you but no thank you."

"You do not wish for a party?"

"Oh, you can have your party. I'm just saying that I will be spending it locked in my room. I've had enough of rampaging undead, thank you very much."

The wizardess shrugged and sighed. The girl would probably change her mind by the time celebration came around.

"Do you feel tingling?" She decided to ask.

"A little, around the edges and in the back of my skull." Aneele let out a sigh.

"You will just have to get used to it until you are healed," Safiya patted her head. Aneele straightened herself and rubbed her neck. Safiya washed her hands in the small pool which stood next to the bed.

"I have managed to reconnect the nerves to hag's eye. The potion you drank in combination with oil and powder I covered your face with should stimulate the re-growth of skin and muscle. Naturally, this means that will have to replace bandages two times a day at least."

Naturally, Aneele thought somewhat dazed and testy.

"A cleric would perhaps be more proficient in healing but I doubt they can handle such critical scars as your own unless specialized. And I doubt Darovik had any practice with all the Witches around."

"Will I be able to see again?" Aneele asked reaching for her leather eye-patch. Safiya slapped her hand away.

"Bandages only. You don't need any extra pressure on top. And yes, you will be able to see. Of that I am sure. It is just that you many not see the world same as before."

"Like a hag you mean? Will I have craving for men as well?" Aneele muttered and Safiya laughed.

"Possibly. But I doubt it will be worse than your craving for spirits and souls."

Aneele let it all slide off like a well practiced spirit-eater.

"Now, you mentioned something about wanting to apologize."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, you do. Come along now. And perhaps you can tell Gann about those nightmares now?"

Aneele threw a venomous glare at the woman. Her nightmares were her business alone. If she had wanted to she would have talked about them.

"Perhaps," she managed to squeeze out.

Safiya had to be the pushiest person around. She and Sand would get along perfectly. Before leaving Aneele eyed Safiya, suspecting that the real reason why Safiya wanted her out of the room was to show off her amazing healing abilities to the Witches.

So very much like a Red Wizard.

She managed to apologize awkwardly, and without any great incident attached, to the dwarf woman. Ele'ena was never one for apologies and Aneele never felt the need to apologize to anyone for anything. But Magda had opened her home to them and Aneele did feel like she owed the dwarf woman something at least, and that something wasn't a pit fiend on the stage.

She did promise to try and not act so reckless again. And she did hope she would be capable of keeping that promise at least. Afterwards she was offered an exclusive first look at the grand play – to which she really couldn't say no to with Safiya smiling that Red Wizard smile behind her – and thus, the elf had spent the rest of the afternoon watching rehearsals of the said grand play from the back row, although poor Vesper kept glancing worriedly at her direction for the entire time effectively ruining the mood.

Gann was up on the stage as well – possibly the reason why Safiya threatened her into staying in the first place – and he seemed to display that certain something necessary for being up there. A talent for melodrama.

"Of course he does. He practiced daily on people around him," Aneele muttered to herself.

The part they were portraying now was from the early history of the Crusade, a tale untold and forgotten. And Gannayev had the honorary role of the Narrator of these events. Aneele considered making a quick exit but managed to clamp down on the urge. Angry red wizards and sobbing hagspawns didn't fall into category of things Aneele wanted to deal with. Not in the mornings, not in the evenings, not now and not ever.

So she stayed, sitting on prickly hay with hands hidden between her knees dreading things that would come. The story had to be adapted for viewers' pleasure and for their sake because it certainly couldn't last as long as usual storytelling would. It would suck the life out of them faster than Akachi ever could. That or they would lose the will to live. Aneele knew she was right after the 'stage Akachi' started a line of oaths of things he would do to anyone who'd dared to stand between him and the never named Red Woman.

Surprisingly, and in a lifesaving act, sometime in the middle of the rehearsal Okku joined her and Aneele immediately replaced the prickly hay stool for a soft bear fur nestling against her back. Even more surprising was the sound of something crashing on the stage but by the time Aneele looked up Gann was already apologizing and criticizing in equal parts the Wall coulisse, saying quite eloquently that if it weren't improved or moved slightly more to the back Myrkul's own army would be the one toppling it and that would have terrible repercussions for the play.

Aneele sighed. Gann knew his way around with words. He could talk a dragon into handing over his hoard of treasure. Or he could talk it into letting him out alive. Possibly the reason why she was avoiding him.

Noticing Gann after regaining her soul was in many ways similar to noticing Safiya, and still very different.

She guessed she understood why men and women everywhere were so keen on his hide, for different reasons of course. What made her view of him different was that she knew him all too well, better than he knew himself she suspected. It killed the mystery he liked to surround himself with.

She also suspected it also irked him somewhat.

Instead of trying to figure out what she felt, if indeed she felt anything all – she still had troubles reconciling her early childhood memories and emotions – Aneele tried to understand what Gannayev expected from her.

Or rather, why?

Her suspicion lay in the fact that he still thought her to be as intriguing and unpredictable as the soulless spirit-eater was. Aneele snorted. He was in the world of disappointment then. Elves, next to dwarves, had to one of dullest races to grace this world. Ah, to be human…

She rubbed her knees nervously looking at the blue man marching the stage elegantly. Well, this disappointment would catch up with him sooner or later, she thought. She just hoped he would take it well and have something else catch his fancy.

An hour later into the play Okku was snoring softly and Aneele wasn't far behind. From her perspective it was all, been there done that. Still, she managed to stay awake until the end of the rehearsal when Gann came down the short set of stairs to two only viewers present. Okku continued sleeping like nothing happened. Apparently, the play had a good effect on tired spirit gods in need of recuperating their strength.

"Was the show to your liking, hero of spirits everywhere," he asked with a flourish and a bow still very much caught in his role. It would have helped if he had actually been wearing his designated costume.

"You should ask Safiya that. This more her part of the story than mine," Aneele said carefully standing up so not to wake the sleeping bear. She let her hand stay and wander behind his large ear where the bear made low rumbling noise.

"Yes, yes," Gann replied quickly frowning, "we tried to persuade her into taking a role but the stubborn woman refused."

Aneele scrutinized his expression which held in equal parts exuberance, fatigue and slight annoyance. He enjoyed being on the stage Aneele decided, for more reasons than just being the center of attention.

"Can you blame her?" She said quietly, "You are the only one among us who does not have something to tie you with the Akachi in one way or another."

He made a disappointed face and then threw his hands in the air.

"Oh, go ahead. Take her side again."

Aneele shrugged, it had become a habit she couldn't get rid of. She was just stating a fact really.

Gann took in the white bandages woven around her head and covering her damaged eye instead of her customary leather eye-patch. He had heard what Safiya had planned for the young elf and, naturally, he had agreed. His mother's eye was better off serving some purpose then resting at the bottom of some bag or another. And he had to admit, to himself at least, that he had other reasons for going along with it.

"You are on the way of mending I see," he gestured at her face, his finger grazing the cloth covering her eye and cheek.

"Safiya likes to brag with her knowledge," Aneele responded quietly touching the bandages. "But I don't think I will be able to see for a long while."

"But you will see," he said in a voice brooked with certainty. "In more ways than one if I may add."

Aneele sighed feeling, and looking deigned. It seemed that everyone but her were certain that she will be able to see on two eyes again in no time. It would be funny is she didn't feel so much pressure coming from all sides.

"Come now, it wouldn't hurt you to show a smile."

Even if she couldn't produce quite that all-knowing spirit-eater look Aneele still eyed him levelly.

"It would in fact. I'm missing half the muscles from my face. I'm surprised I'm able to talk at all."

"Magic," he supplied most unhelpfully.

"Isn't it always?" She wondered but finally managed a small smile.

"There you go. Not as hard as you might have imagined it," his mocking voice tittered above her and Aneele would be one very happy girl if she could somehow instill fear into him the way she used to. Failing that, she would be satisfied with a punch landing in a painful spot.

At that moment the sound of giggling coming from the double doors of the theater interrupted what could have been the first tension-free atmosphere between the elf and the hagspawn in weeks. They both turned to see a pair, or more, of girls whispering and glancing at the blue hagspawn.

Aneele sighed.

"Your audience is here."

"Accompanied by their brothers and fathers and husbands no doubt," he said in a flat voice but managed to flash a smile which spawned more inane giggling. "I am starting to believe that my immense beauty has drawbacks."

Aneele looked at him in the pure fashion of a spirit-eater and decided to pretend he did not just say that. There were some lines even in stupidity you did not cross.

More giggling and whispering.

Aneele pulled back with a sigh.

"Your future worshipers await you Gannayev. Don't disappoint them or they'll spin the tales that will really set their brothers, fathers and husbands at you."

"And things have just settled down in a relaxing routine," he murmured. There hasn't been a pitchfork mob after him for good four and a half months now. He grimaced and looked at her in something that could have been desperation. There was a slight possibility that Aneele had misinterpreted it.

"Go on," she nudged him quietly. "Once you're on stage you won't be able to avoid them forever. Safiya needs to change my bandages anyway."

She watched Gann's shoulders straighten and he walked over to his overly devoted admirers. As she watched them talk Aneele supposed it was good that some things remained the same, more or less. It made things easier for her.

With certain things straightened out in her head she went on in search for Safiya. She suspected she would find the wizardess in deep and overly polite conversation with the local Witches.

That night Aneele hoped there would be no nightmares. Either because of the newly implanted Hag's Eye, or because she secretly hoped Gann might make an appearance.

She was very much wrong when the nightmares returned with vengeance, much the same way they did every night. She had woken up covered with cold sweat, eye glazed over and muscles so tense she had ripped a hole in her sheets.

She had cried again that night. Silently, so not to wake the others.


	19. Chapter 19

It itched.

Aneele rubbed the leather of her eye patch since she wasn't allowed to touch tender and rapidly healing flesh behind it. Four days ago Safiya had stitched her face back together, with hag's eye serving as a replacement for her old one.

She had no idea how it will look like once healed fully, or if she'll even be able to see with it but for the moment it was one major source of irritation. Bare skull at least, didn't make her want to reach up and peal it.

The elf looked at several plates before her. Meat, vegetables, eggs and dried fruit. Food. It was all she did these days. Eating for an army.

It made her more than a little self-consciences. Yes, they could afford to pay for Magda's yearly supply of food but that didn't make her feel any less like nuisance in the pantry. Curse good manners, she thought looking at the hallway where actors were coming and going in busy preparation for the grand performance of spirit-eater's search for the cure. It was to be one of main events on the night of great celebration – which also happened to happen on this very evening. She knew where she was going to spend it that was certain.

And then, there went the hagspawn.

He didn't approach her, clearly in hurry to complete some business or another. He did however send her invigorating smile of outmost evil. It sent shivers down her spine and made her want to activate her hellfire shield just to keep him away. Reason why – unknown.

Aneele bit into her wooden spoon. He was going to take revenge.

She knew that because she knew that Gann was a vengeful sort. It might not involve blood and gore and fire but the hagspawn certainly had an abundant imagination he could put to use.

He was going to make her pay for every time she stared him down into submission, every time she had the final word, every time she stomped over his castle-sized ego.

Every damn time she called him Gann-of-Hans.

Aneele winced. She was doomed. Doomed to nightmares and whatever else he could come up with.

"Are you feeling alright, deary?" Magda asked passing by her. Aneele put down the spoon and pushed her plate away.

"I think I'll visit the Bazaar," she said trying to sound absent but ultimately couldn't hide a little tremor in her voice. Yes, she should do that. Fresh, non-intimidating air would do good for her.

On her way out of the kitchen she saw that the stage was occupied with actors again and that, to her surprise, Okku was resting among the bales of hay. Just as during her soulless time Okku brought peace to her mind. She did not know why but she could always think more clearly around him, and as before, she was grateful for it very much.

She took a seat on the bale next to the bear god.

"Are they rehearsing still? The performance is to be tonight," she asked with a raised eyebrow. Okku huffed.

"And by the time it reaches the stage it will be unrecognizable."

"Isn't it always," Aneele sighed in relief.

"The little woman said there will be 'romantic undertones added for viewers' pleasure'."

Aneele paled.

"Please tell me that Magda had decided to change me into a man and have a happy future with newest incarnation of the Founder."

"Humph, the Red Wizard would have her head. No, I heard mentioning of a man trapped in the Wall."

" _Bishop?!_ " Aneele's voice was so loud she interrupted the rehearsal. Actors of the Veil theatre all looked at her and she balanced between sheepishness and indignation before deciding to ignore them in the favor of later. It was, after all, Bishop they were talking about.

"Is that woman mad? No, wait. She runs a theatre. Of course she doesn't have all spirits in her head," Aneele buried her face in her hands. If this leaves on tour her reputation will be tarnished beyond repair.

And if Bishop was alive somewhere out there and accidentally sees this… Aneele decided some things were better left not imagining. Why did she pull him out of that wall again?

"Artistic license sucks," she muttered feeling defeated. The bear god rumbled beside her in something that might be described as chuckle.

"Are you eager to go home, little one?" The bear god asked suddenly crossing his large paws before him. Not all that surprised by his question Aneele looked up from her palms and bit her lip.

"I'm not sure. I don't have any nice memories about home." More accurate would be to say she had no emotional ties to that place. It confused her but she had decided it was for the best. With the book Jerro had given to her she might have brought a horde of demons crushing onto Keep otherwise.

"There is always place for you in Rashemen."

"Except for the way everyone keeps looking at me."

"You are a hero now."

"But I was a curse first," Aneele finished and looked at the bear god with a large grin, "What of you Okku? Will you go back to your barrow, or did this little joust across Rashemen awaken your wanderlust?"

The bear god looked at her, his yellow eyes thoughtful. Aneele felt like she was being dissected again, more gently than the red wizards had done though.

"I am undecided," he started finally. "Dreams beckon me but, yes, as you have guessed this 'joust' had reminded me of how it was to be alive."

"Perhaps in your wanderings you'll find another poor young adventurer in need of guidance," she wrapped his colourful fur around her fingers. "You make a fine guardian and advisor Okku."

"You have little need of guardians and advisors now, little one."

"I am too young to be left without supervision. Misfortune seems to follow me intensely."

Startling her, the bear god climbed to his paws. He touched her cheek with a ghostly snout. It felt soft and feathery and not at all like that of a living animal.

"You have grown into a fine female, Aneele. There is no need for you to hide behind the mask of a child anymore," he rumbled softly before leaving the stunned but not surprised elf alone.

It was an unusually sunny day, Aneele noticed as she sat on the wooden fence near the Market square and watched women add final touches to many decorations.

It was fortunate in the eyes of many that the spirit-eating curse had been destroyed just as the winter ended and the spring was in full bloom. And the festivities that would follow soon would be decorated in the most spectacular array of colours, curtsy of Magda, fitting for such a grand occasion.

People at least looked happy, Aneele thought fingering her eye-patch. Since the muscles and nerves were regrown and reconnected, and she could feel them moving once again, she had tried removing it a little, without any clearance from Safiya, to see if her new eye worked.

It did, and from what little she saw she didn't like it. Not if it meant that she was to see what people fantasized every moment of their waking hours – that was Gannayev's idea of a good pastime. She didn't even wasn't to think how easy it would be to enter their dreams once they were asleep. It all just made her acceptance of the lack of her own ability to walk dreams all the more frustrating. It was a bitter herb to swallow, one she stubbornly resented and resisted still.

She glanced up at the narrow walkway that lead to the upper part of the town. There were people she could talk with in Mulsantir but she wasn't sure if it would mean anything in the end. Still, not knowing ate at her all the more and she hopped off the fence and made her way through the semi-crowded streets and up the way to the Ice Troll lodge. A place she approached with trepidation yet with purpose as well.

She wished she could speak with the half-drow woman they have freed in Skien but she had overheard that she and her granddaughter have left Mulsantir. She did not know the reason behind it but that left her with only one other option.

Nak'kai, the local and all too powerful shaman.

Aneele doubted the berserkers will be happy to see her after she had shamelessly played with their local pet telthor badger like a cat with mouse. Using the _Hunger_ to drug him around while it squealed pitifully and tried to claw its way out.

She didn't eat him in the end, but that had more to do with telthor snow leopard interfering, one angry shaman and a lodge full of hostile warriors. Even a fledgling spirit-eater knew when to back off. Yet, into the lion's den she had to go for she had questions for the one who was further down the way of spirits, as Gann had described him.

Doors of the lodge were wide open and people were coming in and out, warriors and other. Even here signs of coming celebration and excitement could be seen.

Ele'ena had always been easy to intimidate. Aneele felt some apprehension at the thought of entering the lodge. A place full of battle ready humans who were at least two heads taller than her and did not have the most positive opinion on her due to her bluntness. Still, she wanted to speak with Nak'kai about something and the fact that he was on the other end of the room filled with berserks didn't sit well with her. And to think she didn't bother to bring her weapons with her.

Aneele peered inside. Nak'kai was, as was to be expected, at the other end of the lodge, flanked with two thelthor snow leopards. Aneele didn't like those cats. Worse, she had suspicion that those cats didn't like her either. And in between her and the old shaman were many, many, _many_ warriors with excruciatingly low opinion of her.

' _Chin up now,'_ she told herself, _'you've faced Kelemvor and Akachi. You can deal with bunch of barbarians. Angry barbarians. Angry barbarians who wouldn't have a slightest problem with cleaving you in half.'_

As she walked inside she had spotted Jurak, the leader of the lodge and, as the story goes a great strategist. There was Lena with several empty kegs before her, Yulia with what looked like sparks freezing between her fingers, and others too.

Main thing here was for her not to let them smell her unease, though she had no doubt that telthors have already caught her sent.

But, no one approached her even if by the looks on their faces they were not thrilled to have her here. A mix of detest and gratitude were to be blamed for that she guessed.

She managed to approach Nak'kai without any incidents but she had spotted Forovan flexing his left hand. She hand nearly shattered his bones whilst trying to pass his challenge of strength. It had made his weak left hand even weaker. Dirty look he had sent her way spoke volumes of his sentiments towards her. Still, she tried to ignore it all.

"Greetings Nak'kai," she said as she stood next to the tall man. She had tried not to pay too much attention to the great spirit-cats who were lazing about as any living cat might. He turned to look down at her and she nearly flinched as those stormy eyes bore into her. Did she do this to Gann as well? Poor hagspawn.

"Aneele," he responded slowly looking her over with such care she felt he had little problem catching glimpses of her thoughts, "you look decisively healthier compared to the last time you passed through here." He gestured for her to take a chair next to his, "The spirits have sensed the passing of the curse and I know it is you we have to thank for the peace you have brought."

"There will always be something else," Aneele said quietly taking an empty seat next to the fire. Despite coming of the spring it was still very much cold here in the north.

"True," he sighed and dropped his hand to the head of great telthor leopard, "but unless the gods devise that having such destructive force free upon the land is productive I should hope we will never see the likes of it again."

Aneele said nothing to that. Gods being what they were she suspected that some of them would have no problem with unleashing something akin to hunger all over again.

"I apologize for any intrusion but there was a matter I wished to speak with you about," Aneele said slowly glancing at many berserkers mingling in the lodge. "It concerns dreamwalking," she finished looking back at him.

Nak'kai dragged his fingers through his tick beard.

"I cannot say dreamwalking to be something that comes easy to me but you travel with Gannayev, yes? Isn't he better suited to answer any questions you might have?"

Aneele tried not to show any discomfort she might have felt.

"He takes great pride in his ability and I would like a simple question answered rather than an essay."

"Yes, I imagine he could easily turn it into that," Nak'ka chuckled lightly. "Very well, but before you ask your question there is something I would know."

Aneele swallowed and nodded. She had inkling what this was about.

"Tell me, of your soul and the emptiness before it."

Aneele rubbed her wrist thinking of the best way to describe the feeling.

"It feels… stretched. As if my body had grown in some places and my soul can't fill those holes. And then, I have let so many holes be made in my soul that parts of me that shouldn't be empty are."

She looked up at him before looking away.

"It is not something to be wished on anyone."

"No, I dare say it is not," he echoed softly.

"The emptiness was maddening, but it didn't seem so then. It was… the way things were and there was nothing but push forwards. You latch on something that makes sense and don't let go."

It was the closest way for her to describe the sensation of hunger on her mind and the effects she could still feel. The shaman was silent for a while before he nodded. Yes, this was of interest to him, to see if the curse had spawned more madness in its wake. But the consequences were yet to be seen.

"Thank you for this insight. Now, you said you had a question, ask."

Aneele frowned lightly.

"While I was the spirit-eater I had the ability to dreamwalk, much like Gann did. But since the curse was lifted I can no longer do it. Was the ability mine to begin with?"

Nak'kai thought carefully. He thought back on the nights the dreamwalker had spent in his company while waiting for the small elf to wake up. He had told him much of this Akachi.

"If what I understood from the nature of your curse, it is possible that whatever latent ability you may have had was awoken and straightened by Akachi but it doesn't have to be so."

"I have not noticed the slightest bit of awareness in my dreams."

"In that case, it could mean that the ability was Akachi's and you have, if you'd forgive me, took a ride along with him."

"Which would mean that I could not dreamwalk to begin with," Aneele concluded. Nak'kai nodded. It had confirmed her suspicions concerning elves and dreams. Eleves just didn't seem cut out for it. She should have realized it on her own.

"Thank you Nak'kai, you have helped me clear things up."

"I have not done much. Have you enjoyed dreamwalking this much to miss it now?" He asked slowly looking over her troubled expression.

"Yes. But I would want to escape nightmares that plague me now."

"Gannayev is more than proficient with dealing with such things. And he would be more than glad to help."

"I am sure that he would." Which was all the reason more _not_ to ask him,

"Help you with what?" Smooth voice sounded right behind her causing the elf to jump in her seat.

She was startled very much by his sudden appearance in the lodge. And he did not look happy to be there. Worse, he didn't look happy she was here. Aneele's eye widened taking in his appearance, pleasant voice in contrast with his sharp look he was giving her. Not that it was necessary, his presence alone gave her an uncomfortable feeling.

She tried to think back to time, and not all that far in the past, if Gann ever had a 'presence'. He could have, not that she noticed. It could have been drowned in the presence that was Aneele the Spirit-Eater.

Was she doomed to regret loosing Akachi till the end of her days?

"Gannayev," the old shaman greeted the hagspawn with a thin smile. "We were just discussing a topic that could be of interest to you."

Aneele looked at Nak'kai with a fearful expression. One that did not go unnoticed by the hagspawn. Why did he have to go and mention that, she thought snapping her jaw shut and feeling her resentment for the old shaman growing.

"Truly?" He quipped not looking at her and Aneele felt another sort of resentment growing. "Then I should say I feel a bit wounded with not being included right from the start. As for you," he finally turned to look at her and Aneele suppressed to old need to shift uncomfortably. She even managed to look at him with an even stare.

"You secretly hope for Safiya to mangle me in the most excruciatingly painful way possible, I swear," he sighed most dramatically but something in his stance, or was it his eyes, made the elf stiffen a little. "The moment you failed to show up for your appointment with her, she put the blame on me."

"I doubt you'd let her anywhere near you enough to do damage," Aneele stated flatly.

"And that would prevent the Red Wizard from trying, how? No, do not answer that. Your close friendship with her had utterly blinded you to her darker side."

Aneele sensed a barb there. One that wasn't all too well hidden. She did wonder where all this open hostility was coming from. She opened her mouth to say something equally insulting but Gann sighed and beckoned her with his hand.

"Come along. Safiya insists that your bandages are in need of changing." Aneele ignored the growing itchiness on her face and stood up, with Nak'kai following her movement. She looked back at him.

"Thank you for your time Nakk'kai. It was informative."

"It was nothing," he regarded her carefully. "You are recovering well Aneele. A different person from the one who walked in this lodge many months ago."

"Carrying an emptiness inside changes the perspective on life easily," she said and with small bow of her head allowed Gann to guide her out.

He had no weapon with him today and wore no armor but even with glares of distaste directed at her he did not let go of her hand, keeping her close to him and had firmly made his way through the room full of barbarians.

It was a strange feeling to have him protect her like that. Furthermore, she wasn't entirely sure what he was protecting her from and whether there was any deeper meaning behind this. Aneele didn't like to think she needed protecting from anyone. And besides, it was usually him in dire need of saving.

"How did you know where I was?" She asked as he pulled her down the slope and through the decorated gate.

"You were seen leaving the Veil," he answered curtly.

"By a magpie or the fox?" Aneele asked. Gann stopped suddenly, she did that a lot to him, causing the elf to stumble into his back before he spun around looking at her as if for the first time.

"Care to repeat that?"

Aneele rubbed her nose and cheek before throwing him a small glare.

"I asked, was it the magpie or the fox? Your spirits, correct?"

His jaw dropped slightly and coupled with almost panicky expression made him look like a frightened stag. Or a cornered wild animal.

"You know of them then?" Words stumbled out of his mouth, "How? Since when?"

"I was a spirit-eater. I could see them," she shrugged looking away. And obviously not any more or she would have noticed them following her earlier.

She felt insulted. It was not as if she was trying to escape constantly. How could she? With Kaji trying his best to be invisible, and failing miserably, and Gann's spirits watching her every move – she felt like a child all over again. Except this time she was more closely supervised than ever. It reminded her terribly on her time with her foster father, who despite never being around still managed to glean all her comings and goings.

Now that she thought about it, without biased cloud of anger, Daeghun probably had a way of keeping an eye on her without being present. It would suit his reclusive ways. It still didn't inspire any new positive emotion regarding him.

"You never mentioned seeing them," Gann murmured quietly as his expression turned to that of sulk and betrayal. And they've never said a word to him about it. Talk about being stabbed in the back by a family. Again.

"I had other priorities."

"And now?" He asked. "What are your priorities now?"

Aneele avoided looking him in the eyes.

"Try and get back on my feet I suppose. Figure things out."

"And yet you went to Nak'kai." He shook his head, "Sometimes I wonder what to do with you."

"Do you have to do anything at all?" Aneele asked not bothering to hide her bitterness. But that bitterness was mostly directed at herself. Sometimes she could look him straight in the eyes without blinking while other times she couldn't stand being in the same room with him.

He took a deep breath and Aneele had a sense that he was steeling himself not to loose his temper.

"Why didn't you come to me if you had problem with nightmares? You know I would help you with it." Aneele blinked not sure how to answer that. He relaxed his stance somewhat, "Safiya told me, and I have suspected as much."

"I… It is not the first time I had bad dreams, Gann. I didn't want to make a big fuss about it." She tried to shrug it off, "Besides I'd hardly be normal if I didn't dream about things that have happened."

Gannayev looked at her in a way which made her go to Nak'kai in the first place. He frowned looking every inch displeased with her answer.

"Your normality can be heavily debated if you allow yourself to be tortured like that."

Aneele felt a shot of anger run through her.

"Do you think I enjoy having them?! Do you honestly believe I take it all if I could walk away?"

"I do not see why not," he shrugged perfectly imitating her earlier dismissing action, "and seeing how you've barricaded me out of your dreams I have no other option but to categorize you as a masochist."

Aneele stared at him now truly baffled. And hurt. Did he not figure it out on his own by now?

"I cannot dreamwalk Gann, so I honestly doubt that it was me who is impending on your trips through dreamscape," she replied bitterly. The suspicions look on his face told her he didn't quite believe her. That possibly hurt her all the more.

"I find that hard to believe. More than just your Dreamer's Eye was open. Such talent cannot be lost overnight."

"Are you calling me a liar," she whispered. He raised his hand in calming gesture, one that did not do much for the raging elf.

"No such thing. I merely say that loosing dreamwalking as an ability is not something that can happen."

"As you’ve said. Which is why I went to speak with Nak'kai," she noticed him frowning, he was insulted obviously. "He said it could have been Akachi's ability all along. His presence just dragged me along with him," she sighed but Gann waved his hand interrupting her.

"Impossible. The control you had over your dreams was complete."

"I don’t know how to explain it. My knowledge of dreamwalking is limited but I have done nothing to prevent you from going anywhere, or managed to evade my nightmares."

He was silent for a moment, regarding her in a way Aneele could not quite explain. She even thought he might reach for her. Finally he said in a calm voice,

"I have not walked through your dreams in quite a while now, since we've returned from the Fugue plane in fact. I could not even pass through the threshold. You have created a great wall around yourself, one even the most experienced dreamwalker would have trouble getting around to."

"I haven't done anything Gann, at least not consciously,"

Gann sighed and rubbed his eyes. He had honestly not expected such turn of events. Could that be the reason she was avoiding him lately? No, he knew there was more than that but this could be one of the major ones.

"Nak'kai could be wrong. It could very well mean that Akachi's presence had triggered any latent ability you may posses." He took her hand in his.

"What makes you believe I have any?" She asked quietly almost hopeful. He scoffed.

"You would not be able to create such wall around your dreams if you had none. Besides, if a farm girl from a middle of nowhere can create a copy of me – poorly done as it was – then I have no doubt that a master of spirit-eating curse can do as well."

Aneele swallowed, nearly shaking as she tried to get a grip between two conflicting impulses. To her ears what he said sounded very much like 'if one farm girl can become a dreawalker there was no reason another one couldn't.'

His words, his stance, his voice, should have been comforting but this was Gannayev, Gann-of-Dreams, and Aneele doubted his words and his ability to give comfort. Doubted them because he didn't believe what he said. Because he wasn't accustomed to combining comfort and truth.

She couldn't understand him, she just couldn't. Why?

Why the overflowing concern for her? Because she had given him a chance when no one else would? Because she wouldn't look down on him for being a hagspawn? Hells, she didn't even know what a hagspawn was until she came here.

She knew he was trying though he didn't know he was failing and she couldn't bring herself to care either way.

She struggled as hell not to flay skin off his face or open a portal beneath his feet and drop him into first inhospitable plane she could find. She wanted to yell and storm off, and she wanted to break down and cry. But most of all she wanted this tug of war between her old self and new to end. She had won her soul back, she was tired of struggling and wanted her life.

She felt his hand tug her and his fingers curl around her wrist. She looked up at him and the look he gave her made Aneele want to run off to the other end of Faerun.

"Come," he said softly. "At least for tonight you won't have to worry about nightmares. And tomorrow I will help you see how far your dreams can reach."

Aneele nodded weakly and not looking up allowed him to lead her away, her mind filled with thoughts she couldn't make sense of. She had to think.

* - * - *

Aneele placed a vial of oil and a bag of powder on the table. These were necessities that kept her face healing. She frowned.

Perhaps Okku was right, she thought sitting in Lienna's room after receiving a sound verbal trashing by the Red Wizard about danger of going outside without previously putting any bandages on her freshly grown face.

Perhaps she had grown up and didn't notice it, still clinging to her shredded childhood. Perhaps it was so way back in Crossroad Keep.

Perhaps it was time to face her 'imaginary' inner demons.

She knew she couldn't go on like this anymore, and she wondered what she could do about ending this cycle. Gann offered to help, Safiya offered to help, even Okku was there as a silent grumpy support. But support could only go so far. She would have to walk the rest of the way on her own.

The position of Knight-Captain was forced upon her, as was that of Neverwinter Nine. She never wanted either. Now she needed to discard them as she should have back then.

The trip back will more than likely be costly. Whether she would take a caravan or would walk on her own she would still need to pay for transportation and supplies. Her share of gold from this travel she had no intention to touch – even if she had every right to. If she started asking about that or worse, Safiya or Gann noticed some of it gone, they would start asking questions.

Aneele couldn't stomach questions just yet.

Fortunately, she had accumulated enough essences to make enchanted trinkets that would make many a wizard sizzle with jealousy, if she dared to say so herself. And she had already created many during her recovery.

The elf made herself comfortable in the wooden chair as she proceeded to open drawers which contained much needed tools and materials, as well as all the 'failed junk' she had created up to this point.

Aneele was Crossroads Keep bound. All she had to decide now was whether she would be the one to torch the place to the ground or have an army of demons to do it for her.


	20. Chapter 20

From the docks, across the Bazaar and streets and all the way up to that Kelemvor's temple and Temple of the Three, people were celebrating.

The Wychlaran had confirmed the final death of the age old ravenous curse. It will be back to trouble this land no more. The spirits and people could finally breathe in peace.

Or it could have just been a reason to throw a party.

After having the Bear God's army at their doorstep and the bearer of the legendary curse strolling down their streets, the people of Mulsantir probably needed it. Though true celebration was out there in the wilds of Rashemen, among the spirits who were the true victims of Akachi.

Aneele, for her part, was trying hard to look as inconspicuous as possible as she tried to find her way through the crowd without getting squashed by large men. Small, tiny, gray colored elf wasn't too noticeable and only few with whom she had had contact before recognized her at all. But apart from few exchanged greetings she didn't stay at one place for long.

She didn't know where she was going, except that she was looking for a secluded place while everyone wined and dined. She ran her fingers across three pouches on her belt, all three were expensive bags of holding.

One was filled with the gold she had earned from selling almost all of her handcrafted items. The second contained the Silver Sword and Myrkul's Wrath along with other wondrous items she had created and decided to keep. And the last one had all the necessities for a travel – just in case her plan doesn't work.

Yes, she was running away again. Nothing new really.

She looked over the Mulsantir Gate. Could the guards have been told to look out for the small elf? Not that Safiya or Gann knew her well enough to come to such conclusion, unless she had done or said something to draw suspicion.

Okku knew what she was going to do and, thankfully, he understood. The cub sometimes had to leave the pack and walk the path of its own making, he said. Aneele knew what he meant, and was grateful for the advice he had whispered to her. She will really miss the old bear, his grumpy kindness and colorful fur. And since she liked it so much he even allowed her to take a lock of it with her. Though he was flattered, as any animal was where their fur was concerned, he didn't quite understand it why she enjoyed it so much. Aneele didn't know either, she just knew she did.

Shaking her head she looked in direction of the Sloop. The Shadow Plane? Did Safiya monitor it? Not possible. Aneele knew was just acting paranoid now. And it wasn't like she needed an empty town. A secluded corner would do.

"Aneele?" A slightly insecure but musical voice addressed her and the elf whipped around in surprise.

Not far from her stood Anya, clothed in festive dress of sunny colours and décolleté low-cut just enough to tease but not look indecent. Her hair was decorated with braids and flowers and she had a sparkle in her eyes. A beautiful girl in prime of her youth attending the festival.

She was everything thin, scarred and battered Aneele was not.

"It is you, isn't it?" Insecurity gone she approached the elf with a merry step. Aneele had an urge to take a step back. "You accompanied Gannayev when he freed me from the prison of my dream."

A prison of your own making, she nearly said but held back and cracked a small smile. Well, he did free her in the end, explained some things even.

"That would be me, yes."

"I would have hardly guessed. You looked so stern and lifeless back then. You look better now," Anya smiled flipping her heavy chestnut hair slightly. Aneele grit her teeth. Strict? Lifeless? All good ways to describe her emotionless state. Not that she needed any reminding, thank you.

"And I am glad to see you awake. Your father was very worried for your life," Aneele said trying to sound pleasant. That was another thing that Gann will never forgive her, forcing him to apologize to Anya's father in the manner that she did. But that was hardly important now. "Are you and your father here to join in on celebration?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed happily clapping her hands together. The amount of good mood the girl radiated was not sitting well with elf's pessimistic thoughts. "I don't get to go to town often but this festival wasn't something we could simply miss. Even the spirits near our farm are rejoicing. We had not heard them sing such pleasant songs for a long time," she sighed happily.

Aneele sighed for an entirely different reason. The spirits probably stopped singing the moment she walked out of the barrow.

"Have you seen Gannayev?" The girl asked looking around many male faces, a pretty rosy blush spreading across her cheeks.

For a moment Aneele paused feeling confused and sad, before gesturing up the street under the archway to where the great bonfire was.

"Last time I saw him he was talking to Nak'kai, the local shaman…" But when she looked back at the girl she saw her staring at her bony hand, a good portion of color fleeing her face. Aneele had a mix of reactions to this, from guilty pleasure to feeling of reality biting her where it hurts when she made the choice to keep her arm the way it is now.

She placed her hand back in her pocket and forced a smile.

"Go on. I'm sure he'll be glad to see you."

At the mention of pretty hagspawn her eyes lit up once more and with a small smile of her own and a muttered 'thank you' she moved through the crowd with an ease, drawing the attention of many men, and a few women, the way only a dreamwalker could.

Once out of sight Aneele took a deep breath. If she wasn't careful enough she might end up in a deep depression. She was not a dreamwalker, she was no longer a comely girl and the sooner her heart accepted what her mind knew already it would be better. Her chances for a normal happy life were just about as possible as Anya going unnoticed in the crowd.

Aneele frowned. She needed a private spot. Preferably now.

Twenty minutes later Aneele was leaning against the side of a stone house right next to the city wall, her mind filled with angry dark thoughts. Behind her, in thickening shadows, the summoning circle was slowly fading away.

She was robbed. There was no other way to explain it. Her masks, ludicrously named _Eyes of the Coven_ and _The-not-so-good Eyes of the Coven_ \- she is never lettting Magda name anything ever again - along with a number of other items crafted from unique essences had passed to that greedy devil. She had flat out refused to barter for the Silver Sword and Myrkul's Wrath, those things cost her far too much on personal level to simply hand them over. Not to mention that she had to struggle not to have her heavily enchanted tunic removed as well.

One thing was certain, Mephasm was a rotting thief. And if Neeshka was truly a descendant of his then it was no small wonder she took such pleasure in robbing people blind.

Aneele looked down at the dainty glass bottle in her hand.

But in the end, it was worth emptying her entire pouch for it. Mephasm informed her that once the glass was broken she would be transported to Sword Coast, somewhere near Neverwintar or Crossroads Keep, as she specified it.

Mulling her decision to leave without saying anything in her head, she thought that at least Safiya deserved know about it. After all, the wizardess had been through much in order to help her – though much of it was forced by her own creator.

That wasn't to say that Gann had come out unscratched, it was just that Aneele didn't like thinking about Gann. Thinking about the hagspawn meant she would have to think about certain things she didn't want to think about in the first place. Her soul was not stitched back together in right places just yet to think about _those things_.

Therefore by her logic of things, Gann was to be avoided like plague.

Not the most grateful behavior considering that he did follow her to the City of Judgment, one of several places in the planes you don't want to be, and he did help her with Akachi, but the way he behaved towards her made her feel increasingly uncomfortable and far too hopeful.

She was certain that somewhere along the way the hagspawn had made a confusion in his mind, mistaking curiosity and gratitude for accidentally helping him with genuine feelings even she knew nothing about.

Aneele rubbed her forehead cursing her indecision. It was going to kill her faster than a stray arrow. Second time.

A pair of Wychlaran witches passed by her interrupting her conflicted thoughts. Katya and Kazimika, who still disliked her foreign hide and didn't bother to hide it, but she acted civilly enough. She had to squeeze greetings and gratitude through her teeth though, and that had to have hurt. Pleasantries completed they were on their way into the night.

This brought another reason for hurried departure. She couldn't stand being looked as the spirit-eater anymore. The accusing looks she was receiving even now from the people who recognized her were defeating. She did not want to deal with that kind of thing anymore. She didn't want be seen as a villain anymore. Rashemen was not the place where she could settle down.

She needed to find Safiya.

And that wasn't a hard task to do. She was the only young woman in the crowd who had her head covered. Help or not, she was still a Thayan and thus highly unpopular among the locals. One good deed, even a great one, will not undo centuries of hate.

Aneele found her sitting near the great bonfire with a good view on the singing bards and storytellers.

"Are you enjoying yourself or are Thayan parties a better sight to be seen," the elf girl asked approaching. Safiya arched an eyebrow in the typical manner of a professor about to imprint knowledge.

"Thayan parties are certainly flashier, although guests usually don't wake up at all rather then just with a simple headache. I find Reshemi celebrations to be more hospitable in that regard. Their hospitability fails in other areas I'm afraid."

"If that means that you're enjoying yourself then it is good. You have earned it," Aneele said with a laugh.

"Well so do you after-"

"Stop! No more mentioning of Akachi. Let the poor man rest in peace," Aneele interrupted gesturing with her hands that it was a dead-end conversation. Safiya smiled.

"You still keep your eye covered," Safiya gestured at her large eye patch. Aneele touched the leather lightly.

"Yeah… It… still feels strange to be able to see on both eyes. I just need more practice." And by practice she meant that she should really learn how _not_ to see people's emotions and dreams floating around them. Having an eye of a hag who could waltz into one's dream with impunity was proving to be a distraction. Not to mention she could only use its abilities while awake. No dreamwalking for her still.

"Besides, that's not why I walked across half the town," the elf said opening one of her non-raided bags. She pulled out a small pouch made of fine leather and handed it over to the wizardess.

Taking it up Safiya looked at her funnily. What fell out when she opened it was a ring of old fabrication but brought to life by skillful crafting hand. To Safiya it looked incredibly familiar.

"It belonged to the Founder," Aneele explained. "It was Akachi's gift to her, and she had given it to me before we left. It was broken but I used some brilliant and pristine-"

Her speech involving many intricate detail of spirit-crafting was interrupted when Safiya hugged her quite suddenly and quite fireclay.

"Thank you," she whispered holding her tightly. Even if Akachi was personally unknown to her, the Founder was still a mother figure in her life. It was still because of Founder's, Nefris', dedication to her love that she now existed. One could even say that Akachi was more her father than a memory of a distant lover. And strangely enough, Aneele understood it.

"It is a precious gift for her and I will treasure it."

"Of course you will," Aneele smiled fiddling with another small pouch, this one however made her feel much more uncomfortable now. "And would you hand this to _him_ , please," she managed pushing the pouch in her hands. Safiya looked at it, mind wrapping around the word 'him,' before bursting out laughing.

"Safiya," she hissed. "Don't laugh. You know I can't give it to him."

"Why ever not? He'd certainly appreciate it." Feeling around the pouch she could feel it

"He'd think it's an invitation or worse, a confession!" Aneele raved. Her still sickly condition luckily prevented too much unwanted invitation. "I dread saying 'thank you' to him. He might misinterpret it for 'I love you' instead."

"And you don't?"

"No... I-... I know him. I understand him. And... to my shame, like any other girl in Mulsantir, I do think him attractive... I, however, do not love him," she tried to put into words her own conflicting emotions. She doubted she could trust them full after having none for months.

Safiya pushed the bag back in elf's hands.

"Then you will tell that to him. The issue needs to be settled, and now is as good opportunity as ever. Now," she placed her arm around the elf's shoulders, "I know I have seen him- Oh…"

Safiya made a sound. It was the type of sound made prophesized bad things on the horizon.

"What?" Aneele asked wobbling between gathering her nerve and loosing it.

Ahead of them Gann was walking through the crowd, for once not being totally speared by the looks of other men. Next to him, or better said around him, Anya moved light foot, almost dancing while chatting happily about something. And if his expression was anything to go by it had to subject they were both equally interested in.

Dreamwalking, Aneele guessed. One big, important thing they had in common. She could see it now, ' _A 1001 way to make or brake dreams_ ,' by Gannayev and Anya.

"I didn't expect this. Him letting girl fawn over him like that," Safiya said frowning lightly.

"Why shouldn't he? He obviously enjoys the attention. He always has," Aneele said feeling finally defeated. Safiya wanted to say something but at that moment Anya wrapped her arms around the hagspawn's neck and yanked him down in a solid, deep and very much real kiss.

Safiya's hand paused in air halfway to her lips while Aneele felt the emotion of the intensity equal to that of _Hunger_.

She wasn't keen to sit and wait to see how long it would take them to disentangle. She just dropped the pouch in Safiay's lap and stood up.

"I can't stomach the wine being served," she said passing Safiya stiffly. "I am going to bed."

"Very well," the wizardess responded not forcing the fact that Aneele rarely drank wine and had none this evening.

Part way up to Sheva's house, among berserkers drunk and merry, girls who danced and sang loudly and witches who have decided that relaxation was allowed for one evening, no one heard the cracking of glass, or spotted an impossibly small blue cloud of smoke, or even an empty space where there was none before.

**Fin**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there we have it, the final chapter of "Hungry Dreams". I hope you enjoyed this story, even with it being as old as it was and with all the beginner mistakes a rookie wannabe-writer can make. At times I toyed with the idea of rewriting the whole thing, but the story is near and dear to me, even such as it is.
> 
> In any case, thank you for taking some of your time to read it.


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